Speaker: West Seeking Political Fraud in N. Fuel Supply
TEHRAN, Feb 6 (ICANA)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani blasted the West's policies on the nuclear fuel swap with Iran, saying that the western party is moving on the line of "political charlatanism".
"Westerners should know that Iranians are not gullible," Larijani said, addressing a scientific conference here in Tehran on Saturday. Questioning the West's concerns about the supply of nuclear fuel for Tehran Reactor, Larijani stressed, "The reality is that you (the West) are after political fraud in this regard and intend to take the enriched materials out of the Iranians' hand." He underlined that Tehran is capable of making decisions on its own and does not need westerners' sympathy, specially with regard to the supply of nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor. Larijani's remarks came after Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who is in Munich for a security conference, announced that Tehran is close to striking a deal with the world powers on sending its low-enriched uranium abroad in return for the nuclear fuel needed for the Tehran research reactor. "I personally believe that we have created favorable conditions for such an exchange in the not very distant future," Mottaki said at a meeting with his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday evening. Last Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad explained that Iran would not suffer a loss if domestically produced stocks of low-enriched uranium were sent abroad, in exchange for fuel rods for the Tehran reactor engaged in producing medical isotopes. "We have no problem sending our enriched uranium abroad," Ahmadinejad said on the state television on Tuesday. "We say that we will give you our 3.5 percent enriched uranium and will get the fuel. It may take 4 to 5 months until we get the fuel," he said. 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 five permanent UN Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany held high-level talks in Geneva. 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. The Iranian lawmakers rejected the deal after technical studies showed that it would only take two to three months for any country to further enrich the nuclear stockpile and turn it into metal nuclear rods for the Tehran Research Reactor.