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Iran ready to join nuclear body with states in region

November 03, 2007, 23:29

Tehran: Iran would be ready to join a body that would provide enriched uranium for Middle East users, an Iranian official said on Friday, after Saudi Arabia proposed it as a way to defuse Tehran's nuclear row with the West.

The official, who said it was initially Iran's idea, did not mention the Islamic state's own uranium enrichment work. Iran has consistently refused to heed UN demands to halt uranium enrichment which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.

"The issue of a consortium is an issue that the Islamic Republic initially came up with," senior Foreign Ministry official Mohammad Reza Bagheri was quoted as saying by the Isna.

"If Arab countries are ready to take part in a consortium with Iran we still welcome our previous proposal and we are ready to do it," he said in Istanbul, where Iranian officials are taking part in a conference on the situation in Iraq.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said in an interview published on Thursday that the Gulf states are willing to set up a body to provide enriched uranium to Iran to defuse Tehran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries - Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates - share Western concerns Iran's nuclear energy programme will lead to it making atomic bombs. Tehran says it wants to produce electricity.

The consortium would distribute enriched uranium for all users in the Middle East according to need and ensure that it is not used for atomic weapons, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal told the Middle East Economic Digest (Meed).

Prince Saud said Iran was considering the offer, which envisages building a plant in a neutral country such as Switzerland.

Source: Gulf News

Iran welcomes GCC plan on uranium

Published: November 04, 2007, 09:44

Tehran: Iran welcomed a recent Arab proposal to set up a consortium to provide Mideast countries with enriched uranium but said it would not halt its own enrichment activities, the official news agency IRNA reported.

"We welcome proposals for our participation in joint enrichment projects with other countries, but it won't be acceptable if the condition is to stop enrichment in Iran," IRNA quoted Javad Vaeedi, a top nuclear negotiator, as saying on Saturday.

Vaeedi was responding to a proposal by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal under which Arab states would set up a consortium to provide Iran with enriched uranium to help resolve the country's standoff with the West over its controversial nuclear program.

The Saudi official told the Middle East Economic Digest that Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE would develop a uranium enrichment plant in a neutral state outside the Mideast, such as Switzerland, to provide nuclear fuel to the region.

"Raising such ideas is no problem as long as they don't contradict Iran's rights," Vaeedi said. "All of Iran's resistance has been to preserve its rights regarding uranium enrichment."

The five permanent Security Council members and Germany agreed Friday to come up with a new sanctions resolution if November reports by the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency do not show improved Iranian cooperation.

Source: Gulf News