"The agency (IAEA) has been asked for the presence of its inspectors in this (enrichment) process because all Iranian nuclear activities are and will be under the agency's supervision," Iran's Residing Representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh told FNA, adding that a letter containing Iran's demands was submitted to the agency midday today.
Soltaniyeh further reminded Iran's June 2 official announcement to the IAEA about its need to nuclear fuel supplies for the Tehran research reactor, and said, "Four months after the talks in Vienna during which the Islamic Republic of Iran offered a logical and technical proposal for a simultaneous exchange of enriched uranium in order for a guaranteed supply of the (nuclear) fuel, we have not yet received a final and positive response (from potential suppliers)."
Iran could no more suspend the activity of its humanitarian project - the Tehran research reactor - which supplies hospitals' requirements and radiomedicine, he reiterated.
Meantime, Soltaniyeh underlined that the door is still open for industrial states to supply Iran with the needed fuel, adding, "Those who claim to be a proponent of cooperation and interaction within the agency's framework are expected to take this opportunity and choose the path of interaction and cooperation instead of confrontation."
Iran's letter to the IAEA came a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to provide and install the necessary equipments to start enriching uranium to the purity level of 20% to feed the Tehran research reactor.
"Here I announce to the head of the AEOI to begin the 20% enrichment," Ahmadinejad announced, addressing the inauguration ceremony of an exhibition on the achievements of Iran's National Center of Laser Sciences and Technologies.
Meantime, he did not dismiss cooperation with the western countries for a nuclear fuel swap, saying, "Of course, if the western countries want to enter interaction and cooperation without any precondition, the door is still open."
After Iran announced to the IAEA that it had run out of nuclear fuel for its research reactor in Tehran, the Agency proposed a deal according to which Iran would send 3.5%-enriched uranium and receive 20%-enriched uranium from potential suppliers in return, all through the UN nuclear watchdog agency.
The proposal was first introduced on October 1, when Iranian representatives and diplomats from the Group 5+1 held high-level talks in Geneva to discuss nuclear fuel supplies to Iran.
But France and the United States, as potentials suppliers, stalled the talks soon after the start. They offered a deal which would keep Tehran waiting for months before it can obtain the fuel, a luxury of time that Iran cannot afford as it is about to run out of 20-percent-enriched uranium.
|
