Iran ready for nuke talks

JAPAN: Iran is ready for immediate talks with world powers over a nuclear fuel swap deal, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview published in Japan Friday.

Iran is “ready to resume in late August or in early September” talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany over an exchange of enriched uranium, Ahmadinejad told the Yomiuri Shimbun.

Ahmadinejad hinted Iran could stop its controversial programme of uranium enrichment if a deal were struck to ensure the supply of nuclear fuel to Tehran.

“We promise to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent if fuel supply is ensured,” he said in the exclusive interview in Tehran, published in Japanese.

“We have the right to enrich uranium. Iran has never provoked a war nor craved for nuclear bombs,” he added.

Ahmadinejad’s comments follow those he made earlier this month urging the United States to join talks on a fuel swap deal.

TOKYO, Friday, AFP