Ahmadinejad: Swap deal could be only nuclear issue in Istanbul

Thu, 09 Dec 2010

Tehran - A uranium swap could be the only nuclear-related issue that Iran would raise in the next round of multilateral talks, Iranian media quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Thursday.

"We have red lines which are non-negotiable in our talks with world powers, and this includes suspension of uranium enrichment," Ahmadinejad said.

"But we are ready to cooperate with the powers on the swap of enriched uranium and would welcome their cooperation with us in building further nuclear plants," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with students in central Iran.

In an agreement signed in May with Turkey and Brazil, Iran agreed to store at least 1.2 tons of its low-enriched uranium in Turkey and later exchange it for nuclear fuel to be used in research reactor in Tehran.

The deal was met with skepticism by the international community because it did not address the issue of Iran freezing uranium enrichment as demanded by the UN Security Council.

Iran this week held renewed talks with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States in Geneva. The meeting failed once again to produce any tangible results, but the participants agreed to continue the talks in late January in Istanbul.

Iran wants Turkey, which with Brazil was the only county to oppose the latest Security Council sanctions against Iran, to be included in the talks, but the other participants were expected to reject the proposal.

Ahmadinejad maintained the swap could make Iran stop enriching uranium to 20 per cent because exchanging and purchasing fuel would be more economical.

The other Geneva negotiators were reportedly not opposed to reviving the swap deal but insisted the UN resolutions demanding a halt to enrichment must be accepted and implemented by Tehran.

Ahmadinejad said future cooperation with the world powers depended on the other side's acknowledgment of Iran's nuclear rights and the lifting of UN sanctions.

Tehran insists that it nuclear projects are solely for civilian purposes and rejects Western concerns that it might be using them to produce nuclear weapons.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357341,be-nuclear-issue-istanbul.html.