UNSC support for Iran benefits world

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says support of the UN Security Council for a nuclear fuel swap between Iran and the West will benefit the international community.

“I am confident that besides measures by the Vienna group to swap fuel, support of other countries and particularly the UN Security Council will bring peace to the international community and build trust for all sides involved,” Mottaki told reporters in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on Monday.

He added that such support would stop the West from moving in the wrong direction and repeating its failed experience of the past five years on Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran says its work is directed at the civilian applications of the technology. The West, however, says the program is a cover for developing nuclear weapons.

On Sunday, Mottaki held talks with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano on the nuclear fuel swap proposal.

Under the proposal, Iran is required to ship out most of its low-enriched uranium aboard for further reprocessing. The country, however, has asked for tangible guarantees that the other sides — Russia and France — would deliver the fuel in a timely manner. The demand has been ignored by the West.

“The nuclear fuel swap proposal is still on the table. Iran’s acceptance of the deal will prove the country’s goodwill and political will,” said Mottaki after the meeting in Vienna.