Tehran, October 22: Iran will not renounce its right to enrich uranium to levels above five percent purity even if it strikes a deal for a third party to carry it out, the head of its Atomic Energy Organisation said in comments published on Thursday.
“As we have said before, we will not give up our rights,” Ali Akbar Salehi told the state-owned Iran newspaper.
“There is actually no need for us to enrich uranium to more than four or five percent purity as the reactors that we use need uranium enriched to a maximum of five percent,” he said.
“So, enrichment to five percent is the highest level that we want for our reactors. But that does not mean that we will renounce our right to enrich uranium level to a higher level.”
The UN atomic watchdog drew up a draft agreement on Wednesday for Russia to process Iranian low-enriched uranium to the 20 percent level required by a research reactor in Tehran and for France to turn it into fuel form.
The draft followed two and a half days of talks in Vienna also involving the United States.
“Iran has the capability to enrich uranium to 20 percent but prefers to obtain the fuel from abroad,” Salehi said.
“This policy has numerous hidden messages that I would rather not go into,” he added, without elaborating.
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, has asked Iran and the major powers to give their views on the UN watchdog’s draft by Friday.
Meanwhile, the United States said Wednesday that a draft accord on Iran’s nuclear fuel is a “very positive step.”
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the draft brokered after crunch talks in Vienna between Iran, Russia, the United States and France is “very positive step,” adding it “was acceptable to our team.”
On its part, France backs the draft agreement tabled by the United Nation’s atomic watchdog on the supply of enriched uranium to Tehran, the top French nuclear negotiator said on Wednesday.
Jacques Audibert said the deal would require Tehran to ship out 1,200 kilogrammes (2,640 pounds) of its stockpiled uranium by year end for enrichment in Russia, then France — a key sticking point in negiotiations.
Iran insists it has the right to develop nuclear technology, which it says is aimed at generating energy for its growing population.
Although Iran has oil, it is still dependent on petrol imports to meet about 40 percent of domestic consumption.
Israel is the only country in the Middle Ease that actually has nuclear weapons.
Observers say due the strong Jewish and pro-Israel lobbies in the US and some European countries, these countries have taken a hypocritical stance in relation to nuclear issues in the region.
Tehran had repeatedly protested against Israeli and US war threats, warning them that it would retaliate in the event of any strike against Iran.
—Agencies