Iran has said it is ready for a one-shot nuclear fuel exchange on its own soil, edging closer to the conditions of a plan drawn up by the United Nations atomic watchdog last year as major powers mulled a new round of sanctions.
Iran
has
said it is ready for a one-shot nuclear fuel exchange on its own soil, edging
closer to the conditions of a plan drawn up by the United Nations atomic
watchdog last year as major powers mulled a new round of sanctions.
Iran
's
atomic chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, revealed the new offer in an interview
published by hardline daily Jawan on Wednesday, signaling a major change in
Tehran
's
longstanding position on the nuclear fuel plan first drafted last October.
Salehi said
Iran
is
ready to deliver 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, known as LEU, in one
go in return for fuel for a
Tehran
medical research reactor, but the exchange must be inside the country.
Salehi, who is also a vice president, said
Iran
had
earlier proposed to deliver its LEU only gradually in batches of 400 kilogram.
"But this has no technical justification because those who want to produce
the [20% enriched] fuel say that this amount has no economic
justification," Salehi said.
"What we are saying now is that we are ready to deliver the total amount
of fuel in one go, on condition that the exchange take place inside
Iran
and
simultaneously.
"We are ready to deliver 1,200 kilos and to receive 120 kilos of 20%
enriched uranium."
He also insisted that
Iran
has
the right to enrich uranium to 100% "but we don't need beyond 20
percent."
According to the latest report by the UN atomic watchdog,
Iran
has around
2,065 kilograms of LEU which it processed at its Natanz plant in defiance of
repeated U.N. Security Council ultimatums and three rounds of U.N. sanctions.
Iran's latest offer is significant as it had previously baulked at the idea of
delivering 1,200 kilos of LEU in one go, insisting that it would only hand over
the stocks in phases.
Under the plan drawn up by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Russia would
have produced the 20% enriched uranium, which would have then been converted
into fuel by
France
.
Iranian officials had opposed the plan as they saw it as a ruse by Western
powers to deprive Iran of its uranium stockpile, and had put forward a rival
proposal to either buy the 20% enriched uranium fuel on the international
market or conduct a fuel swap in stages on Iranian territory.
Western governments have opposed the idea of exchanging the fuel inside
Iran
and
in recent weeks have stepped up pressure for a new round of U.N. sanctions
against
Tehran
with
Moscow
's
support.
But
China
, of
the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council is still
holding out against new sanctions with the support of some non-permanent
members.
"This issue has to be appropriately resolved through peaceful
negotiations," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in
Beijing
on
Tuesday after talks with his
U.K.
counterpart David Miliband.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government currently holds a
non-permanent seat, said after talks in
London
on
Tuesday: "We believe in the importance of a diplomatic solution."
Uranium enrichment is the most controversial part of
Iran
's
nuclear program as Western governments fear some of the stocks could be
covertly diverted for further enrichment to weapons grade, a suspicion rejected
by
Iran
.
Tehran
infuriated
Washington
in
February by starting to enrich uranium to 20 percent itself, seen as a key step
towards the 93% level required to make a weapon.
Salehi said what was important for
Iran
was
that the fuel exchange happen on its own soil and that it be given guarantees
it would receive the 20% enriched uranium.
"When we say that the exchange has to happen inside
Iran
, it
means the [International Atomic Energy] Agency will take control of 1,200 kilos
of our LEU and then seal it," Salehi said.
He said the U.N. watchdog's representatives could then "monitor it 24
hours a day and ensure that nobody broke the seal".
"When they [the major powers] deliver the 20% fuel to us, they can then
take the LEU out of the country."
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