Iran to continue enrichment while mulling swap offers

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has reiterated that Iran will follow through with its nuclear enrichment operations while considering fuel exchange offers by other countries.

Referring to a recent letter to the UN nuclear watchdog by the US, France and Russia on Iran’s nuclear activities, Mottaki told reporters Tuesday, “The three countries have written a new letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which has been misinterpreted as a new proposal.”

“Iran studies all feedbacks by different sides that are presented to the IAEA directly or indirectly. However, Iran will continue its domestic nuclear activities,” he added.

The Iranian minister underlined that the country has the right to produce the fuel it needs for the Tehran research reactor while it continues negotiations for a potential nuclear fuel swap deal.

The Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali-Akbar Salehi said Monday that the body has received proposals from the United States, Russia and France on a nuclear fuel swap.

“After Iran’s decision to domestically produce 20-percent-enriched uranium, we received offers from Russia, America and France,” Salehi said.

“We are currently studying them along with other proposals from different countries,” he added.

Last week, Iran began enriching uranium to the level of less than 20 percent for a nuclear research reactor in Tehran which is running out of fuel.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced last Thursday that Iran had produced the first batch of the enriched uranium.

However, France, Russia and the US denied reports on Monday that they presented new proposals on a nuclear fuel exchange to the IAEA.

“There is no new proposal on the table,” said White House spokesman Mike Hammer.

“Mr. Salehi ought to know the only offer is the one which was proposed by the IAEA in October, and which has so far not received a satisfactory response,” said French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero.

However, the “satisfactory response” that the French official has referred to has already been clearly rejected by Iran over the lack of any guarantees to the Islamic Republic on the timely delivery of the enriched fuel that the Tehran research reactor requires.

Under the original proposal put forward by the UN nuclear agency, Iran was to ship out the bulk of its enriched uranium stockpile to Russia and France, and receive the fuel back months later.

Meanwhile, the US, which has pushed for new UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran, has offered to help Iran obtain medical isotopes — which are being produced in the research reactor.

US State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said Wednesday that the White House hopes the offer would help to “build some confidence” with Tehran.

The offer, however, was deemed as ‘illogical’ by Iran, since it would inevitably lead to the shut-down of the Tehran research reactor.

Iran has repeatedly announced that it remains open to talks on a fuel swap with the West. However, Tehran insists that its conditions, mainly revolving around guarantee issues, must be taken into consideration if the West is interested in engaging in a fuel exchange deal with Iran.

Iran needs 120 kilograms (264 pounds) of 20 percent-enriched uranium to fuel the Tehran research reactor.

If the fuel for the Tehran research reactor completely runs out, there will be dire consequences for thousands of Iranians who depend on its radioisotope production for medical treatment.