France rejects Iran’s nuclear fuel proposal

France has rejected Tehran’s latest proposal for exchanging its low-grade nuclear fuel with higher enriched uranium in a simultaneous swap inside the country.

French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bernard Valero said that France “will not touch on the technical issues” of the offer to provide fuel for a nuclear research reactor in Tehran.

The statement came one day after Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that although Iran would not send its 3.5-percent-enriched uranium out of the country for further reprocessing, it would still be willing to consider the nuclear fuel deal if the conditions of the procedural transfer were changed.

The deal, drawn up by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after talks with Iran, the US, France and Russia in Vienna last month, proposes an exchange of Iran’s low-grade uranium (enriched up to 3.5 percent) with fuel processed to higher levels of around 20 percent enrichment.

Valero also noted that talks could continue with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear drive.

Iran needs the higher enriched fuel to run the Tehran nuclear reactor, which produces medicine for cancer treatment and other clinical requirements.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko also reacted to Mottaki’s remarks, saying that there is still a chance of reaching a deal on the issue.

Nesterenko also rejected the possibility of talks about imposing new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear activities.

“We believe that we have every chance of implementing the Geneva agreements in full,” AFP quoted the Russian official as saying on Thursday.

He called on major powers to ‘let diplomacy work,’ stressing that ‘superfluous emotions only harm the situation.’

Iran says the lack of confidence toward the West is the main reason behind Tehran’s decision to reject the recent proposal on its nuclear program.

Iran’s Ambassador to the IAEA Ali-Asghar Soltanieh told Press TV on Wednesday that Iran has refused to further enrich its enriched uranium in a foreign country due to the West’s previous performances.