A nuclear fuel swap inside Iran, as proposed by the Islamic Republic, is "not an option," the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei said Wednesday.
A nuclear fuel swap inside
Iran
, as
proposed by the Islamic Republic, is "not an option," the head of the
United Nations atomic watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei said Wednesday.
"I don't think that is an option. The whole purpose of the deal is to
defuse the crisis," ElBaradei told reporters, referring to a deal he had
brokered on the supply of nuclear fuel to a research reactor in
Tehran
.
Iran
and
world powers have been at loggerheads for weeks, failing to reach a nuclear
fuel deal aimed at allaying Western concerns over
Tehran
's
nuclear program.
The West, led by the U.S., fears Iran might otherwise covertly divert its
low-enriched uranium for further enrichment to the much higher levels required
for a bomb, an ambition Iranian officials strongly deny.
In a deal brokered last month by
ElBaradei
,
Iran
was
offered to ship out most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium for further
processing by
Russia
and
France
so
that it can be turned into the fuel needed for the research reactor, which
makes radio-isotopes for medical use.
Uranium enrichment is at the heart of the long-running standoff over
Iran
's
nuclear activities, because the material can be used to power nuclear reactors
as well as to make the core of an atom bomb.
But
Iran
is
reluctant to let go of its uranium, insisting on a "100% guarantee" that
it would in fact receive the fuel required for its research reactor.
"One of the guarantees is a simultaneous exchange of fuel inside the
country," said
Iran
's
foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast Tuesday.
ElBaradei said Wednesday that there were "a number of built-in guarantees
in the agreement."
The International Atomic Energy Agency "will take custody and control of
the material. We've offered also to have the material in
Turkey
, a
country which has the trust of all the parties," he said.
"But you need to move the material from
Iran
to
defuse the crisis and open the space for negotiation. So, what we are asking
Iran
is to
take a minimum risk for peace and to have an agreement not based on distrust
but based on trust."
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