Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters that Iran would be willing to hold talks with all 15 members of the U.N. Security Council over a nuclear fuel exchange deal.
Speaking at the end of a two-day conference in Tehran on nuclear disarmament, Mottaki proposed a deal, which could potentially put to an end Western suspicions over Iran’s nuclear program.
“In the coming days, we have plans to have direct talks with 14 members of the Security Council and one [set of] indirect talks with a member,” he said, in reference to Washington which does not have diplomatic ties with Tehran.
“The talks will focus on the fuel exchange [deal]. They will be conducted by Iran’s missions in those countries,” he told a press conference.
In October last year, Iran was presented with the option of shipping out its own low-grade uranium to China or Russia, to be enriched to a degree where it could be used in a civilian nuclear reactor.
It is feared that if Iran is allowed to enrich its own nuclear fuel, it could do so to a higher grade, which can be used to make nuclear weapons.
However, there has been little agreement between Iran and Security Council members on the issue of fuel exchange—leading many to suggest that tougher economic sanctions should be imposed on the Islamic republic.
Russia and China—who both have close trade ties with Tehran—have been reluctant to support the latest sanctions drafted by the Obama administration.
Officials from major Western powers met in Washington D.C. last week to discuss the issue, as well as plans for wider nuclear disarmament internationally.
In Tehran, a parallel conference was held also on the issue of disarmament in which the country’s leaders sought to paint the U.S. government as an aggressor.
Partly in reaction to a U.S. military policy statement last week, which did not rule out a nuclear strike against Iran, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out that the U.S. government was the only country to have used nuclear weapons.
“The world’s only atomic criminal lies and presents itself as being against nuclear weapons proliferation, while it has not taken any serious measures in this regard,” he said.
The conference has been seen by commentators as either a sophisticated ploy to buy time for a nuclear weapons program, or an effort to clear up mixed messages, which the country had been sending out.
Mottaki said that a nuclear exchange deal had been accepted in principle in Tehran.
“In principle the issue of fuel exchange has been agreed upon. ... We think ... details could be worked out,” he said, adding that the deal could be operational “within two weeks.”
