"It is clear that we will not going to achieve all goals at one stage," Alireza Daihim, head of the legal department at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said in an interview.

"The main goal is to have as far as possible the consensus, and this means looking into the interests of the whole international community," he said.

Deihim and two other Iranian delegates - Jamshid Momtaz and Said Mirzaie - denied that their country was on the side of the Court's adversaries: Like many other non-aligned countries and the group of  like-minded nations, they said Iran supports a strong Court, universal jurisdiction, the inclusion of the crime of aggression and the inclusion of a ban on the use of nuclear weapons.

They reject, however, the proposal of a strong and independent prosecutor and line up with those countries - like the United States and Russia - that demand more safeguards regarding the Prosecutor's powers. 

The Iranian officials stressed their willingness to support proposals aimed at achieving consensus, and the "constructiveness" of their stand. "The main victims of the crimes that should be under the Court's jurisdiction are the Muslim populations of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and it seems this is what has gained momentum for considering the creation of an ICC," Daihim said. "We wish to establish such a body as soon as possible."