Iran wants guarantees for nuclear fuel delivery

Iran says world powers must give Tehran sufficient guarantees that they will not breach their promise to provide a steady flow of higher enriched uranium.

“If anyone is to give any guarantees it is the other sides that have to provide assurances about the delivery of fuel,” Manouchehr Mottaki said in Tuesday press briefing.

Mottaki said Iran had notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the Tehran reactor would soon run out of fuel, and some countries had announced that they would be willing to provide the required 20 percent enriched uranium.

He added that the second round of October talks between Iran and France, the United States, Russia, and the UN nuclear watchdog which began in Vienna on Monday included technical talks about the planned deal.

After the first session of the Vienna talks, Iran announced that it had removed France from the list of bidders as Paris had failed ‘to deliver nuclear materials in the past’.

After the decision was announced, the team of Iranian experts and their French, Russian, and American counterparts postponed the second session of talks, which was planned for Tuesday, to a later date.

Western countries have proposed that Tehran exchange its low-level uranium with higher level.

Sources close to the talks have, however, revealed that Tehran says it wants to buy highly-enriched uranium directly, without sending its own low-level uranium out of the country.

In late September, the French nuclear reactor maker AREVA announced that it had not delivered any enriched uranium to Iran, although the Islamic Republic has held a 10 percent stake in the Eurodif nuclear plant for more than three decades.