Iran rejects compromise deal, will not send uranium abroad

Iran will not send its enriched uranium abroad for further processing, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Wednesday, rejecting an internationally negotiated compromise deal.

Talking to the ISNA news agency, Mottaki said that Iran would, however, consider a nuclear fuel swap inside the country.

Mottaki gave no details, but Iranian experts believe Tehran might be willing to agree to an option where it receives the processed fuel first and only then ship its enriched uranium abroad.

Iran was supposed to ship its low-grade enriched uranium to Russia and France where it could be enriched to be used as fuel in Tehran's medical-purpose reactor. Turkey had also been briefly mooted as a possible partner in storing Iran's fuel ahead of processing.

Tehran, however, later said that it would prefer purchasing the required fuel from other countries and keep its low-enriched uranium.

The deal was seen internationally as a confidence-building measure for Iran, which wants to prove to the world that its nuclear programme is not intended for making weapons.

The deal had been negotiated between Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members, plus Germany.

Mottaki said that right from the beginning Iran said that it would evaluate the technical and economic aspects of the deal at expert level before giving a final reply.

"Our first priority is to produce the required fuel by ourselves, the second is to buy it and the third option (exchange) we said we would evaluate," the Iranian top diplomat said.

"We will not let us be limited just because they (the world powers) just want the third option to be realized...what (US Secretary of State) Mrs Clinton said that only this exchange option should be implemented is an undiplomatic remark," he added.

Mottaki said that Iran would however be ready to discuss the issue again with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

Last updated on Nov 18^th, 2009 at 22:00 pm IST--DPA