Iran on Friday dismissed a media report that the U.S. was mulling a new offer to the Islamic republic to transfer Iran's low-enriched uranium to Russia for higher processing.
Iran
on
Friday dismissed a media report that the
U.S.
was
mulling a new offer to the Islamic republic to transfer
Iran
's
low-enriched uranium to
Russia
for
higher processing.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the report was a "media game"
and no new "proposal has been forwarded to us."
Le Monde newspaper reported that the
U.S.
was
planning to offer to transfer 2,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium for
further enrichment in
Russia
,
rather than an October 2009 proposal to shift 1,200 kg of LEU out of
Iran
.
The report said the new proposal being considered by President Barack Obama's
administration would require
Iran
to
relinquish 30 kg of 20% enriched uranium it has refined since February.
Le Monde's report appears to be similar to one published in The New York Times
last month which also said the Obama administration was preparing a new, more
onerous offer for
Iran
on a
nuclear fuel swap.
But Mottaki rejected the latest report.
"There is no logic in it," the foreign minister told
Iran
's
state news agency IRNA. He said any fuel swap would depend on
Iran
's
needs as defined in a deal brokered by
Brazil
and
Turkey
in
May.
The May deal, known as the Tehran Declaration, calls for 1,200 kg of Iran's LEU
to be transferred to Turkey in return for 20% enriched uranium to be delivered
from Russia and France at a later date.
"The Tehran Declaration explained the framework for the fuel swap,"
Mottaki said.
"If they do not wish to exchange fuel, we do not want this swap either
because the Islamic Republic of Iran is taking its own measures" to
produce the higher-grade fuel, he said.
Talks between
Iran
and
the
U.S.
,
Russia
and
France
over
a fuel transfer have been deadlocked since October 2009, just as the overall
nuclear negotiations between the six world powers and
Iran
have
hit a stalemate.
The world powers suspect
Iran
is
masking a weapons drive under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, a charge
strongly denied by
Iran
.
But
Iran
and
the major powers are expected to meet this month to hold talks on
Iran
's
overall nuclear drive at which the issue of a fuel swap is also expected to be
discussed.
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