10 November 2009 / AP, TEHRAN
Iran still wants talks with world powers over fuel supplies to a Tehran nuclear reactor -- despite the country’s apparent rejection of a UN plan to curb Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.
The Iranian top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said late Sunday that Tehran “welcomes” talks on the nuclear issue with the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany. Jalili spoke during a meeting with visiting Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, according to Iran’s state television. Russia is part of the UN effort to ensure Iran doesn’t use its nuclear program for weapons-making purposes, as the West fears. Moscow has warned it could back new sanctions against Iran if it fails to take a constructive stance in the nuclear talks. A UN-brokered plan in October required Tehran to send 1.2 tons (1,100 kilograms) -- around 70 percent of its stockpile -- of low-enriched uranium to Russia in one batch by the end of the year for further enrichment, a move that would ease international concerns the material could be processed for a bomb. According to the UN plan, after further enrichment in Russia, France would convert the uranium into fuel rods that would be returned to Iran for use in a reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Fuel rods cannot be further enriched into weapons-grade material. Iran, which says its nuclear work is peaceful, has not yet given a final response to the UN proposal, and has come up instead with its own request to buy nuclear fuel from abroad. Iranian officials and lawmakers have hardened their stance toward the UN plan in recent comments, adding to the pressure on the government to altogether reject the draft.
