Iran may ship 'part' of its uranium abroad: minister

The plan is seen by the international community as a way to delay Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon by getting a large part of its enriched uranium stock out of the country, preventing it from being reworked into a warhead. Iran says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran's final decision over the plan will “will be made in the next few days.”

Iran is weighing between the U.N.-drafted plan or buying its own enriched uranium abroad and keeping its own supply.

“To supply fuel, we may purchase it like in the past, or we may deliver part of (the low enriched uranium) fuel which we currently don't need,” Mottaki said.

In either case, Mottaki said Iran will continue to enrich its own uranium as well — a step opposed by the U.S. and its allies over fears they could produce weapons-grade material.

“Iran's legal peaceful nuclear activities will continue and this issue (Iran's enrichment program) has nothing to do with supplying fuel for the Tehran reactor,” he said.

So far, Tehran's response has been unclear. Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani earlier accused the West of trying to cheat his country with the proposal, raising doubts Tehran will approve the deal. Iran's top ally, Russia, nudged it to accept the plan.

“Iran has not yet officially confirmed its agreement. But we hope the necessary step will be taken and the agreement proves acceptable to the Iranian side as well,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Russian daily Vremya Novostei in an interview published Monday.

Implementation of the proposal “would allow for a cooling of emotions and a realistic assessment of the situation,” said Ryabkov, who has led Russian negotiators in talks on Iran's nuclear program.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email