Wednesday, 3 February 2010 11:43
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran is ready to send its enriched uranium abroad in exchange for nuclear fuel.
A US official said Washington was prepared to listen if Iran was making a new offer to break an impasse over its disputed nuclear programme.
The president appeared for the first time to drop long-standing conditions Tehran had set for accepting a UN-brokered proposal.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency brokered the proposed plan under which Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, would send its low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for more highly enriched fuel for a medical research reactor.
'We have no problem sending our enriched uranium abroad,' Mr Ahmadinejad told state television.
'We say: we will give you our 3.5% enriched uranium and will get the fuel. It may take four to five months until we get the fuel.
'If we send our enriched uranium abroad and then they do not give us the 20% enriched fuel for our reactor, we are capable of producing it inside Iran,' he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the uranium could be exchanged in Turkey, Brazil or Japan if agreement is reached.
Iran has faced intense Western pressure, under threat of new sanctions, to implement the plan and Mr Ahmadinejad's words came with both conciliatory international gestures and uncompromising moves to crack down on opposition protestors at home.
The president offered to swap three detained US citizens charged with spying for jailed Iranians in the US. At the same time, Iran said it would hang nine more rioters over unrest following a disputed presidential vote last June.
US Vice President Joe Biden said Iran's leaders were 'sowing the seeds of their own destruction' through their harsh crackdown on anti-government unrest.
Western powers accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian enrichment program that Tehran says will fuel a future network of nuclear power plants so it can export more oil and gas.
Mr Ahmadinejad's statement on the nuclear issue - on which Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word - was apparently the first time a top official had publicly accepted exchanging low-enriched uranium for nuclear medicine fuel off Iranian soil.
'We made a good faith and balanced offer regarding the Tehran research reactor,' White House spokesman Mike Hammer said in Washington.
'We believe it makes sense for all parties. If Mr. Ahmadinejad's comments reflect an updated Iranian position, we look forward to Iran informing the IAEA.'
The IAEA said last week a deal on uranium enrichment was still possible, despite Western diplomats saying Tehran had in effect turned down the proposal.
Under the proposed deal Tehran would transfer 70% of its low-enriched uranium abroad for conversion into special fuel rods to keep the nuclear medicine reactor running.
The plan aims to reduce Iran's reserves below the quantity needed for the fissile core of a nuclear weapon, if the material were refined to a high degree of purity.
Source: http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0203/iran.html
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