Iran Revives Talks of Enriched Uranium Fuel Swap

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran would negotiate on halting higher-grade uranium enrichment if given fuel for a research reactor. He made his comments on Friday during a visit to Kazakhstan, reviving previous talks of swapping the 20-percent enriched uranium for reactor fuel for Tehran’s research reactor.

“If a guarantee is provided to supply the 20-percent (enriched) fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, our officials are ready to enter talks about 20 percent enrichment,” Mehmanparast said. (IRNA/Press TV, 13 October)

Earlier in the week, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi had told the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel that Tehran was prepared to offer a swap deal if its right to enrich uranium is recognized. Iran, however, has said that all sanctions against the country should be lifted before it stops enrichment activities. The expanding sanctions are fueling a serious economic crisis inside Iran. But the West insists on Iran stopping all activities that could lead to its achieving the capability to produce nuclear weapons before the sanctions are lifted.

Mehmanparast’s comments came on the same day the European Union provisionally approved expanded economic sanctions complementing U.S. plans for further financial restrictions regarding transactions with Iran.

In its latest report issued in August, the IAEA said Iran’s inventory of 20-percent enriched uranium has reached 90 kilograms (200 pounds). Experts say some 200 kg would be required before being refined to 90-percent purity to produce one nuclear bomb. Iran is producing about 15 kg of 20-percent fuel each month, and will have enough fuel by late spring. But it would also need considerably more time to assemble a deliverable nuclear weapon.

File photo: Bushehr nuclear reactor (REUTERS)

Nuclear Fuel Swap To Be Discussed at Moscow Talks

The EU said today Iran has agreed to discuss the substance of a key proposal by the six major powers on its nuclear program, namely limiting uranium enrichment to below five percent purity in return for Western supplies of 20-percent nuclear fuel, during next week’s Moscow Talks. The agreement is considered a mini-breakthrough in the stalled talks [EUobserver.com, 12 June]. 

Iran Ready for Compromise on Higher-Grade Uranium Enrichment

Revival of 2009 Unraveled Agreement on Nuclear Fuel Swap

Signaling Iran’s willingness to make concessions regarding its higher-grade uranium enrichment program, the country’s foreign minister said today that Iran was ready to resolve the issues during the upcoming talks in Baghdad scheduled for 23 May if the West starts lifting its sanctions.

“If the West wants to take confidence-building measures it should start in the field of sanctions because this action can speed up the process of negotiations reaching results,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, the foreign minister. “If there is goodwill, one can pass through this process very easily and we are ready to resolve all issues (concerning higher-grade enrichment) very quickly and simply and even in the Baghdad meeting,” he added [ISNA, 16 April].

"Enrichment is Iran's right but we can negotiate on how we obtain uranium with different enrichment levels," Salehi said during an interview with ISNA. "Making 20 percent fuel is our right as long as it provides for our reactor needs and there is no question about that, but if they guarantee that they will provide us with the (enriched fuel) that we need, then that would be another matter.”

In 2009, the P5+1 and Iranian negotiators tentatively agreed on a deal whereby Iran swaps most of its inventory of lower-enriched fuel for the 20-percent fuel made in the West. The agreement unraveled when the conservative politicians in Iran strongly opposed it. Salehi’s comments today signal a new willingness by Iran to forge a similar deal in Baghdad.

Iran Ready for Compromise on Higher-Grade Uranium Enrichment

Revival of 2009 Unraveled Agreement on Nuclear Fuel Exchange

Signaling Iran’s willingness to make concessions regarding its higher-grade uranium enrichment program, the country’s foreign minister said today that Iran was ready to resolve the issues during the upcoming talks in Baghdad scheduled for 23 May if the West starts lifting its sanctions.

“If the West wants to take confidence-building measures it should start in the field of sanctions because this action can speed up the process of negotiations reaching results,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, the foreign minister. “If there is goodwill, one can pass through this process very easily and we are ready to resolve all issues (concerning higher-grade enrichment) very quickly and simply and even in the Baghdad meeting,” he added [ISNA, 16 April].

"Enrichment is Iran's right but we can negotiate on how we obtain uranium with different enrichment levels," Salehi said. "Making 20 percent fuel is our right as long as it provides for our reactor needs and there is no question about that, but if they guarantee that they will provide us with the (enriched fuel) that we need, then that would be another matter.”

In 2009, the P5+1 and Iranian negotiators tentatively agreed on a deal whereby Iran exchanges most of its inventory of lower-enriched fuel for the 20-percent fuel made in the West. The agreement unraveled when the conservative politicians in Iran opposed it strongly. Salehi’s comments today signal a new willingness by Iran to forge a similar deal in Baghdad.

Iran Renews Call for Nuclear Swap Deal

Iran said today that it is still willing to implement a swap deal worked out with France and Brazil last year to ship its low-enriched uranium to France in exchange for 20-percent enriched nuclear fuel rods for its medical research reactor. The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said Iran would expand its uranium enrichment program if the nuclear swap deal falls through.

“We will not only continue to do the enrichment by ourselves but also build a factory for manufacturing even the fuel rods by ourselves,” Ramin Mehmanparast said.

Mehmanparast added that Iran would halt its 20-percent enrichment if the swap were approved.

“As the 20 percent enrichment process is not even economical for us, we would be willing to halt this process and get the necessary fuel for the Tehran reactor from abroad,” Mehmanparast said.

The West has said in the past that Iran’s proposal does not go far enough, leaving most of the already enriched uranium inside the country and does not halt the enrichment process.

Ahmadinejad Seeking Compromise on Uranium Enrichment

Iran Ready to Purchase 20 Percent Uranium from the West

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has criticized Western countries for politicizing the country's nuclear program, while reiterating Iran’s 2009 offer to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent level if the West were willing to sell Iran the enriched uranium.

“Iran's nuclear program, which is a legal issue, has been turned into a political one by certain Western countries,” said Ahmadinejad in a meeting with Associated Press chief editors in New York on Friday [Press TV, 24 September].

Ahmadinejad added that Iran was willing to negotiate a solution to the nuclear impasse. In recent interviews with the New York Times and the Washington Post, Ahmadinejad has raised the prospect of stopping enriching uranium to 20 percent purity.

In an interview with Nicholas Kristof of New York Times during his recent visit to New York, Ahmadinejad made an unambiguous offer to the West.

“If they (the West) were willing to sell us the 20 percent enriched uranium, we would have preferred to buy it,” Ahmadinejad said. “It would have been far less expensive. It’s as though you wish to purchase a vehicle for yourself. No one is willing to sell it to you, then you must set up your own production line to produce your own vehicle,” he added [New York Times, 21 September].

Ahmadinejad had made similar offer during an interview in Tehran on 13 September with Lally Weymouth of Washington Post.

“For power stations, we need uranium of 3.5 percent and we are producing that fuel. For the Tehran Reactor we need uranium grade of 20 percent and we are producing that. We have no other requirements. Of course at the beginning we had no interest to produce uranium grade 20 percent. But the West refrained from giving us that uranium, so we had to start producing uranium grade 20 percent.

“Even if they gave us now uranium grade 20 percent, we would not continue with the production of this fuel,” Ahmadinejad said. “We don't want to produce uranium of 20 percent. Because they did not give us that uranium, we had to make our own investments. If they start to give us that uranium today, we will stop production.” [Washington Post, 13 September].

President Ahmadinejad had made a similar offer in 2009 only to be rejected by the supreme leader and the hardliners inside Iran. It was not clear whether this time he had cleared the offer with the supreme leader and had his support and approval.

The Background to Istanbul Talks

The talks on Iran’s nuclear program between the world’s major powers and Iran will resume tomorrow in Istanbul. The talks take place amid speculations that a deal is in the making. The background and the issues at the negotiating table:

1. In 2009, the IAEA brokered a swap agreement between the two sides. Iran was to send abroad 1,200 kg of low enriched uranium (LEU), counting for more than two thirds of its LEU inventory at the time, for re-enriching to 20% purity in Russia and turning it into fuel rods and assemblies in France, which would be shipped to Iran for use in its nuclear research reactor in Tehran.

2. The IAEA brokered deal fell apart when politicians in Tehran, mainly the right, opposed the deal, regarding it as a capitulation of Iran’s sovereignty and its rights to enrich uranium on its soil. The Iranian government had to back down from the deal.

3. The West favored the deal as it saw the surrounder of the two-thirds of LEU inventory by Iran would have prevented it from building a nuclear weapon.

4. In the period following the breakdown of the brokered deal, Iran has multiplied its LEU inventory and has enriched uranium to 20% purity. Amid signs that Iran is ready to revive the 2009 deal, the West is insisting that the volume of the LEU to be transferred abroad from Iran should increase to account for the much higher volume in the country's current inventory. Iran has at least publicly balked at the idea.

5. Iran is demanding, and the West is ready to oblige, the ending of all UN, US and EU sanctions against Iran if a deal can be worked out in Istanbul.

6. Iran is also demanding that the broader political issues and problems between Iran and the West be put on the agenda during the talks, and as part of any nuclear deal those issues addressed as well. Among Iran’s demands are assurances by the West that it will not use military force against the country and it will not be involved or encourage a regime change in Iran. The West has been, at least publicly, non-commital on these demands.

Talks on Iran Nuclear Program to Start

The US State Department said on Wednesday that it hoped to hold high-level meetings in the coming weeks with Iran and the five major world powers to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.

"We hope to have the same kind of meeting in the coming weeks that we had last October," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said [AP, 28 July].

In October, the participants proposed a nuclear fuel swap deal with Iran.

Iran's representative to IAEA said on Monday that Iran is ready to resume talks over its nuclear fuel swap without conditions.

No Swap Deal with Iran - US

The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the US had made no deals with Iran in freeing Shahram Amiri. The Iranian scientist turned up earlier on Tuesday at Iranian Interest Section in Washington, accusing the US of kidnapping and imprisoning him for the past 14 months.

Amiri's walking in Iran’s official representative office in Washington gave rise to speculations that he was being swapped for the three American hikers held in Iran. Gibbs was denying such swap in his talks with the reporters today.