Iran not to halt uranium enrichment for foreign nuclear fuel supply

IRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday that Iran will never halt uranium enrichment even if the West guarantees its need for nuclear fuel, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Mottaki made the remarks at a joint press conference with his visiting Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro. “They (the western countries) are not trustworthy and we have experienced this,” Mottaki said.

“The peaceful nuclear activities of Iran, especially the enrichment and generating of fuel for the nuclear power stations, will never be stopped until we gain independence,” he added. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reportedly said last week that Iran would consider stopping sensitive uranium enrichment if guaranteed a supply of nuclear fuel from abroad.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1835 recently to reaffirm its previous resolutions on Iran and demand full compliance from the Islamic Republic. The resolution reaffirmed the previous ones on Iran since July 2006, but without new sanctions.

It called on Iran “to comply fully and without delay with its obligations” under the resolutions, and to meet the requirements of the IAEA Board of Governors.

According to a recent IAEA report, due to Tehran’s block, the UN nuclear watchdog had been unable to make much progress in investigating Iran’s suspect nuclear program. The United States and its allies have accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, but Iran insists that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

Iran till now has been under three UN sanctions over its disputed nuclear program.

Tehran, monday, Xinhua