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Defiant Iran floats uranium swap plan
Source: Agencies |
November 19, 2009, Thursday
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IRAN said yesterday it would not send its enriched uranium abroad for further processing but would consider swapping it for nuclear fuel and keeping it under supervision inside the country, according to the ISNA news agency.
The decision is expected to anger the United States and its allies that had called on Iran to accept a deal which aimed to delay its potential ability of making bombs by at least a year by divesting the country of most of its enriched uranium.
A draft deal brokered by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, calls on Iran to send some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France to be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.
"Surely we will not send our 3.5 percent fuel abroad but can review swapping it simultaneously with nuclear fuel inside Iran," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the ISNA.
The US has rejected Iranian calls for amendments and further talks and US President Barack Obama said time was running out for diplomacy.
Mottaki criticized the US. "Diplomacy is not black or white. Pressuring Iran to accept what they want is a non-diplomatic approach," he said.
Russia and France, both also involved in talks with Tehran over what the West fears are its plans for an atomic bomb, also put pressure on Iran, which faces possible harsher international sanctions and risks even Israeli military action.
Power plays
Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate power.
Tehran has repeatedly said it preferred to buy reactor fuel from foreign suppliers rather than part with its low enriched uranium that can be used for bombs if enriched further.
Iranian pledges in Geneva talks with the six powers on October 1 won Tehran a reprieve from sanctions targeting its oil sector, but Western powers stressed they would not wait indefinitely for it to follow through.
Iran had indicated that it may agree to send only "part" of its stockpile in several shipments. Should the talks fail to help it obtain the fuel from abroad, Iran has threatened to enrich uranium itself domestically.
If 70 percent of Iran's uranium is exported in at most two quick shipments, Tehran would need about a year to produce enough uranium to have the stockpile it needs for a weapon.
The decision is expected to anger the United States and its allies that had called on Iran to accept a deal which aimed to delay its potential ability of making bombs by at least a year by divesting the country of most of its enriched uranium.
A draft deal brokered by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, calls on Iran to send some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France to be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.
"Surely we will not send our 3.5 percent fuel abroad but can review swapping it simultaneously with nuclear fuel inside Iran," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the ISNA.
The US has rejected Iranian calls for amendments and further talks and US President Barack Obama said time was running out for diplomacy.
Mottaki criticized the US. "Diplomacy is not black or white. Pressuring Iran to accept what they want is a non-diplomatic approach," he said.
Russia and France, both also involved in talks with Tehran over what the West fears are its plans for an atomic bomb, also put pressure on Iran, which faces possible harsher international sanctions and risks even Israeli military action.
Power plays
Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate power.
Tehran has repeatedly said it preferred to buy reactor fuel from foreign suppliers rather than part with its low enriched uranium that can be used for bombs if enriched further.
Iranian pledges in Geneva talks with the six powers on October 1 won Tehran a reprieve from sanctions targeting its oil sector, but Western powers stressed they would not wait indefinitely for it to follow through.
Iran had indicated that it may agree to send only "part" of its stockpile in several shipments. Should the talks fail to help it obtain the fuel from abroad, Iran has threatened to enrich uranium itself domestically.
If 70 percent of Iran's uranium is exported in at most two quick shipments, Tehran would need about a year to produce enough uranium to have the stockpile it needs for a weapon.
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