Iran urges nuclear states to supply needed fuel

As Iran puts forward a new plan to acquire ready-made fuel for the Tehran research reactor, a senior Iranian lawmaker urges nuclear countries to supply the needed fuel.

"Countries which possess nuclear fuel are duty-bound to provide it for the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country that carries out its activities in line with the [nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] NPT regulations," spokesman of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Kazem Jalali told Mehr News Agency on Monday.

"Requiring Iran to handover huge amounts of its enriched uranium in exchange for nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor is a digressive issue, " he added.

Sources close to nuclear negotiations told Press TV on Sunday that the proposal would envisage a two-staged, simultaneous exchange under which the UN nuclear watchdog, for each phase, seals 400 kg of Tehran's low enriched uranium (LEU) inside the Iranian territory until the 20 percent enriched uranium required by the research reactor is delivered to the exchange site.

Once the exchange is carried out under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the LEU can be shipped abroad. Western officials are yet to reply to the new proposal, the sources said.

The senior lawmaker said that "the purchase of 20-percent enriched uranium for the Tehran reactor" is Iran's priority.

"It is obvious that the Islamic Republic should not give all its achievements in production of less than five percent enriched uranium to other countries," Jalali said.

In mid-October, representatives from Iran, nuclear negotiators from France, Russia and the United States and experts from the UN nuclear watchdog met in Vienna and discussed a proposal that sought to commit Tehran to ship out most of its nuclear supply.

Tehran has run an enrichment program, in the facility in the central city of Natanz, to provide nuclear fuel for its under-construction power plants — such as the one being built with the help of Russia in the southern city of Bushehr.