TEHRAN -- Iran insists on simultaneously exchanging its low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel produced overseas, the state news agency said yesterday, calling the demand a "red line" they won't abandon.
The condition undermines the basis of a U.N.-backed plan demanding that Iran ship most of its uranium outside its borders, to be further enriched in Russia and turned into fuel rods in France for use in a research reactor. That process could take as long as a year.
The United States and its allies see the process as buying time to reach a compromise with Iran, by depriving it of the amount of uranium needed to make a nuclear bomb. Western powers believe that Iran is seeking nuclear arms, or at least the ability to produce them on short notice. Tehran says its uranium activities are aimed only at producing atomic energy.
The news agency IRNA also said, however, that Iran has not yet given its answer to the U.N.-backed proposal to ship most of its enriched uranium overseas and wants to hold further negotiations on the plan. The agency quoted an unidentified official as saying an Iranian response to the Western offer Thursday "did not contain a reply" to the U.N.-backed plan, but simply expressed Iran's "positive attitude" and willingness to hold talks on the proposal.
Tehran appeared to be pairing conciliatory language with a hard-edged take on the proposal that Iran send 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia. Iran sent a message to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency about the plan on Thursday, and while details have not been made public, European officials expressed frustration that Tehran was stalling over the proposal.
IRNA said in its report that Iran demands that there be a simultaneous exchange of uranium for the reactor fuel. "The simultaneous exchange ... is Iran's red line. Iran will in no way neglect this condition," the news agency said.
The report did not specifically reject shipping most of Iran's enriched stockpile in one batch. But it appeared to suggest Tehran was looking to export small batches incrementally -- waiting for one shipment to be turned into fuel rods before shipping out the next small amount. Iranian officials have previously expressed support for this approach, and diplomats in Vienna who were briefed on Iran's message Thursday said it suggested that strategy as well. Western officials have expressed dismay at such an approach, which would leave Iran with a large amount of enriched uranium.
European leaders yesterday pressed Iran to stick by the deal that would limit its uranium enrichment. EU leaders expressed "grave concern over the development of Iran's nuclear program, and Iran's persistent failure to meet its international obligations," according to a draft statement circulating on the second day of a two-day EU summit in Brussels. A copy of the statement was obtained by The Associated Press.
First Published: October 31, 2009, 4:00 a.m.
