Instead of opening its nuclear technology facilities to inspectors, Taraghi said, the government is more cautious than ever about revealing details of its program to inspectors so that the information "cannot be used against [us] in any likely war waged" by the West.
"We should not volunteer information regarding our nuclear sites, as they may be misused by Americans," he said.
Iran says its program is intended for peaceful purposes. Western nations allege it is the prelude to a nuclear weapons program.
The United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on Iran over its failure to halt uranium enrichment.
The Iranian government's increasingly bellicose tone and its suspicion of Western motives also may be the result of being backed into a corner and inundated daily with domestic threats and plots, said Christopher Rundle, a former British diplomat to Iran and honorary president of the Institute of Iranian Studies at Durham University in Britain.
"Iran is full of conspiracy theories, and some of them may be right," he said. "The Americans might be supporting Baluchi and Arab separatists. There is a concerted effort to destabilize Iran."
The attempt by Iranian hard-liners to call the U.S.-led bluff, however, may have backfired both internationally and domestically. Western diplomats in Tehran say hard-liners grossly underestimate the effect of public opinion and mass media in Britain and the U.S.
Iran's strident statements and use of British prisoners as propaganda tools have shocked those who advocated cautious diplomacy for addressing the dilemmas Iran poses.
Analysts say Iran did not expect that the British would go to the U.N. Security Council and rally support from European countries such as Germany.
"I do think they've miscalculated," Rundle said. "Not many people trusted the current government internationally. And they'll trust them even less now."
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daragahi@latimes.com
