Nov 2, 2009, 13:32 GMT
Vienna - Iran would rather purchase the nuclear fuel for its Tehran research reactor, Tehran's UN ambassador in Vienna said Monday - indicating that Iran is reluctant to let go of its uranium stock.
That would go against demands - mainly from the US, Russia and France - that Western powers do not want to simply Iran sell nuclear fuel, but to have Iran ship its uranium abroad for further processing into material that would run a medical-use reactor in Tehran.
However, Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh also announced Iran's wish for further talks on the matter.
Guarantees that Iran will get its fuel was the core issue Iran wants to discuss with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and these thee countries, Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told the German Press Agency dpa.
'We have had a confidence deficit in the past,' Soltanieh said.
The Islamic Republic had never received shipments of nuclear materials promised by the US and France in the past, he explained.
Soltanieh however refrained to say whether this was the final Iranian reply and the deal made last month in Vienna over exporting its own low-enriched uranium for further processing was off.
A diplomat in Vienna said that Soltanieh did not necessarily rule out sending its low-enriched uranium abroad, but that Iran might be after a direct swap of uranium for fuel, rather than having to wait for it to be processed, in order to have a higher level of assurance.
Soltanieh said his country evaluated last month's nuclear fuel talks with the IAEA, the US, Russia and France positively. 'And now we are ready for the next round of technical discussions,' he said.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Monday joined other Western countries in calling for a swift Iranian response to the IAEA's 4-country fuel arrangement deal, which the other parties have already approved.
There are also technical discussions in Iran that as the more than 35-year old Tehran reactor would be shut down in the coming years be replaced by the Arak reactor in central Iran, the uranium export deal at its current form would neither be wise nor economical.
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