| Iran Six warns Tehran against stalling on nuclear deal |
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03/11/2009 10:28 (18 Day 06:25 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- According to RIA Novosti, the Iran Six will not tolerate delaying tactics from Tehran on a UN-sponsored nuclear fuel deal, the French foreign minister said on November 2.
Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States have been trying to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment for economic and diplomatic incentives.
"We are waiting for Iran to formally accept the proposition made by the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA]. If the Iranian response is to stall, as it seems to be, we will not accept this," Bernard Kouchner said.
Iran said earlier on November 2 it wanted more talks on the deal, including fuel delivery guarantees, and also stated it would like to buy directly enriched material.
"We are ready to purchase fuel under IAEA supervision from any producer - we bought this type of fuel from Argentina about 20 years ago in cooperation with the agency," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He also said Iran wanted to address "technical issues", specifically "guarantees for the supply of the fuel as soon as possible" under IAEA supervision.
A senior Iranian lawmaker on Saturday criticized a plan that requires the country to send its nuclear fuel abroad for processing due to a lack of guarantees over its return.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at an October 21 meeting in Vienna with Iran, France, Russia and the U.S., developed a package of proposals on nuclear fuel supplies for the Tehran reactor. MOSCOW , Paris and Washington said October 23 they approved the IAEA proposals.
"It is not reasonable to send all of Iran's 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to foreign countries and expect they would provide the required nuclear fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor," said Kazem Jalali, rapporteur of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.
IAEA initiatives envision that Iran's low-enriched uranium, produced at a nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, will undergo further enrichment in Russia. France would later make fuel assemblies.
"There is no guarantee that the fuel will be retuned to Iran," he said.
Iran has rejected Western suspicions that it secretly plans to build nuclear weapons and insisted on its right to nuclear technology for electricity generation.
Russia has consistently supported Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy, and has almost completed the country's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr.
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