that American scientists are supportive of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) carried an article with mostly indirect quotes from Prof. Peter Agre, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2003 and recently served as the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world’s leading scientific organizations.
The IRNA English language article painted Agre as fundamentally critical of American policy on Iran and endorsing Iran’s nuclear program. IRNA said, “He told a press conference that Iranian nuclear program is for peaceful purpose and said that many American scientists confirmed civilian nature of Iranian nuclear program.”
It quoted him as saying, “The sanctions are aiming to change the policy of the target nations, but they never worked.”
The lead paragraph asserted in an indirect quote that the “majority of American scientists support Iranian peaceful nuclear program.”
The Iran Times contacted Agre’s office at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore. His spokesman reached Agre by email and forwarded the IRNA article.
The spokesman told the Iran Times that Agre characterized the article as “misleading” and “inaccurate.”
Agre said the quotes were taken from a larger talk on peaceful scientific activities and a response to a question from a reporter.
Agre said he traveled to Iran “to discuss peaceful science and make friends with Iranian scientists at universities—not to apologize or criticize our government or their government.”
Regarding Iran’s nuclear program, his spokesman said Agre’s comments were based only on international news sources and he has no direct knowledge about this topic. Agre said he and his colleagues did not visit any nuclear development sites or meet with any nuclear personnel.
