Iran doubts West sincerity in swap deal

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=127090§ionid=351020104


Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has cast doubt on the sincerity of the West about a proposal to provide fuel for a research reactor in Tehran.

Larijani said that the West's reaction to a recent nuclear declaration announced by Iran testified to its insincerity in nuclear dealings with Tehran.

"Their reaction to the Tehran declaration proved that they are not sincere in the fuel swap," he said.

Following the three-way talks between Iran, Turkey and Brazil, Tehran announced a nuclear declaration on Monday whereby it would send some 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for a total of 120 kg of higher enriched uranium.

The declaration came as part of an earlier plan to supply fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor which produces medical isotopes for cancer patients.

Iran had earlier refused to ship out its uranium under the original deal, citing guarantee concerns. Iranian officials, however, believe that the new declaration can provide Tehran with objective guarantees over the fuel delivery.

While the UN, Russia and China hailed the declaration, the US said that Washington and its allies were "seriously concerned" about the nuclear program although the transfer of low-enriched uranium outside Iranian soil would be a positive step.

The US said that it would continue to push for more sanctions against Iran with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying that the six powers discussing Iran's nuclear work had "reached an agreement on a strong draft."

The new draft resolution, the details of which were made public on Wednesday, calls on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities or face further UN Security Council sanctions.

If ratified, the draft will ban countries from selling new categories of heavy weaponry to Iran and will impose restrictions on the country's banking sector.

With the new draft resolution, Larijani said, the US showed that it was not willing to bring about change in its foreign policy on Iran.

Iran says the declaration leaves no excuse for the West to block the nuclear fuel swap, as Tehran has accepted their prior condition to ship out its uranium to a third country.

"Their previous excuse was that Iran has not accepted [their] demand to ship out 1,200 kilograms of its 3.5 percent-enriched uranium. They insistently said that it is Iran that is avoiding the acceptance of the proposal. Now that we have accepted this condition, they are creating other excuses," Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi told Press TV on Wednesday.