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Iran mulls fuel swap, not to send uranium

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-18 21:24

TEHRAN: Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Iran will not send out its enriched uranium but considers simultaneous fuel swap on its soil, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

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"Definitely, Iran will not send its 3.5-percent enriched fuel out, it means that we think the simultaneous fuel swap is considerable inside Iran," Mottaki was quoted as saying.

Referring to UN nuclear watchdog IAEA's proposal to Tehran, he said that "the proposal was studied in Tehran and we notified the IAEA of our response," adding the media reports that the West is still waiting for Iran's response is a psychological war.

"Actually, they want to tell us that we must respond in the manner that they expect ... (and) Ms. (Hillary) Clinton's remarks that Iran has to accept this proposal is an undiplomatic saying," he told ISNA.

A draft agreement presented earlier by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei called for shipping most of Iran's existing low-grade enriched uranium to Russia and France to be processed into fuel rods with a purity of 20 percent as the fuel for Tehran's research reactor.

The United States, Russia and France have approved the draft deal, but Iran wants amendments and more talks over the issue.