Tehran, October 20: Iran said on Tuesday that France is not needed at the Vienna talks on the supply of nuclear fuel to Tehran and that it would negotiate only with the United States and Russia.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also reiterated that the talks which opened on Monday had nothing to do with Tehran’s uranium enrichment programme and were focused on how to supply the fuel for an Iranian reactor.
Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it requires fuel for its research reactor in Tehran, he said.
“The agency contacted some countries and the United States and Russia accepted to participate in the negotiations to supply the fuel,” Mottaki told reporters at a press conference.
“The negotiations will be conducted with these two countries in the presence of the agency. We do not need a lot of fuel and we do not need the presence of many countries. There is no need for France to be present.”
France along with Russia and the United States has been taking part in the meetings at IAEA headquarters in the Austrian capital.
But state-owned Al-Alam television channel has quoted an informed source close to Tehran’s negotiating team in Vienna as saying that France “did not live up to its previous obligations regarding nuclear cooperation with Iran.”
“It does not have an acceptable record and since it also obstructed the negotiations between Iran and the IAEA,” Tehran will not hold direct talks with Paris, the source said.
Mottaki, however, raised the possibility of future talks with France over fuel supply. “If in the past few days, they said they are ready (with a proposal), then we will decide about it,” the minister said.
The foreign minister insisted the Vienna talks had nothing to do with the republic’s uranium enrichment programme, the most controversial aspect of its atomic drive.
“These talks have no link with the issue of enrichment. This meeting is about supplying fuel to the Tehran reactor and is not linked to our legal and peaceful nuclear activities,” he said.
On reports that Washington is considering to officially acknowledge Iran’s right to enrich uranium, Mottaki said: “American officials have said in some declarations and discussions very clearly this thing, and we welcome it.”
—Agencies