An Interview With Natan Sharansky

During the Democracy and Security Conference, Radio Prague interviewed former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, now a citizen of Israel.

The conference was partly organised by the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center, an Israeli think-tank based in Jerusalem. Among the speakers was the Institute's founding chairman Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident, ardent Zionist and onetime Israeli deputy prime minister. Mr Sharansky's book "The Case for Democracy" is said to have had a major influence on Mr Bush and his foreign policy ideas. He told Radio Prague why the conference was important.

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President Bush has spoken about plans to build a U.S. radar base in the Czech Republic as part of the U.S. missile defence shield. It's aimed at what the U.S. describes as "rogue states" such as Iran. Is Iran really a threat to Europe and the United States?

"As someone who was involved for ten years in the efforts of the Israeli government, to stop the leakage of Russian and western technology to Iran, I can say that as early as 1997 it has been clear that the number one threat to the free world is the development of nuclear weapons and missile systems in Iran. Our intelligence services were warning the free world in 1997 that we have ten years to stop it. It took three or four years for the CIA to agree with our estimations. It took even longer for intelligence services of the rest of the free world to agree. Today everybody knows, everybody who is in this field, knows how dangerous this threat is, and that is one more reason why it is important - urgently - to support the democratic opposition in Iran. Here at this conference we have some leaders of the student democratic movement in Iran and some others who were in prison, who fought for freedom and who know very well that the people of Iran want to live in freedom. Their main appeal to the free world is - understand that your real allies are the democratic opposition in Iran."

Right, but even if Iran does develop the capability to attack Europe or the United States, where's the motive? Why would Iran risk an attack which would mean the country's certain destruction?

"Well, the problem is not only in non-conventional weapons. The problem is in a non-conventional regime. The leaders of Iran today, it's not like communists in the Soviet Union, who wanted paradise in this world. They want paradise in the next world, and they're ready to take everyone with them to the next world - to their paradise."

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