TEHRAN, Oct. 27 - The chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has said that Iran should buy 20 percent enriched uranium for the Tehran research reactor without sending its own enriched uranium abroad.
Iran needs the uranium it has enriched for the nuclear plants it has under construction, MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi told the Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.
He also said the Western powers do not expect Iran to immediately respond to the nuclear deal due to the importance of the issue, but the Supreme National Security Council, which has the final say on the matter, will eventually formulate a response.
The nuclear fuel talks between Iran, Russia, the United States, and France in Vienna concluded on October 21 without a final agreement, but International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei presented a proposal for the four countries to study and said he hoped that all parties would give a firm response to his draft deal by October 23.
Under the draft deal, a large consignment of Iran’s enriched uranium would be shipped out of the country for processing into fuel rods with a purity of 20 percent, which would be used by a research reactor in Tehran that manufactures medical radioisotopes.
On October 23, diplomats from Russia, France, and the United States submitted their formal approvals of the deal to process Iran’s nuclear fuel abroad.
But Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said Tehran was still studying the deal and would formulate a response the following week.
Afterwards, several senior Iranian officials, including Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, strongly criticized the deal, saying it is neither logical nor legal.
MP Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said here on Tuesday that the proposed nuclear deal is a deviation from the agency’s normal procedures.
The IAEA has a responsibility to provide Iran with 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel for its Tehran research reactor and should not deviate from its normal procedures, he told the Mehr News Agency.
MP Eivaz Heidarpour said here on Tuesday that given the West’s history of breaking its promises, there are suspicions that if Iran approves the nuclear deal and sends its low enriched uranium abroad, the West will not provide Iran the 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel.
Iran should make it clear that it intends to purchase nuclear fuel and that if the nuclear powers do not sell Iran the nuclear fuel for its research reactor, then Iran will have to enrich uranium to the 20 percent level, he told the Mehr News Agency.
Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Deputy Chairman Esmail Kosari said that the Majlis would probably reject the proposed nuclear deal.
From the beginning of the recent nuclear talks, Iran wanted to purchase 20 percent enriched uranium, Kosari stated.
“Some wrongly say that Iran has agreed to send its 3.5 or 5 percent enriched uranium (abroad) so that Russia, or other countries that have the necessary technology, will enrich Iran’s uranium to the 20 percent level and send it back to Iran,” he told IRNA on Tuesday.
This idea is only a proposal put forward by the IAEA, and Iran has not yet made any decision, he added.
Source: MNA
October 27, 09
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