Tehran, November 03: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday Tehran will reject any dialogue if its result is pre-determined by Washington, raising the possibility a mooted nuclear fuel deal may be derailed.
“We do not want any negotiation, the result of which is pre-determined by the United States,” Khamenei said in a speech to students on the eve of Wednesday’s 30th anniversary of the US embassy seizure by students in Tehran.
“A dialogue like this is like a sheep and wolf relation, which the late imam (Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) has said that we ‘do not want’,” Khamenei said.
Iran is currently engaged in high-profile talks, backed by Washington, with world powers over procuring nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor.
Khamenei also warned he will not allow people with “ill-intentions” towards Iran republic to “throw out a red carpet for the United States.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying Tehran was at a “pivotal moment” to show it did not want to be isolated.
As Iran said it wanted a review of the proposed deal, Britain and Russia urged it to accept the offer and France warned against “delaying tactics.”
Tehran’s close ally Moscow urged acceptance of the high-profile proposal which aims to apply the brakes to Iran’s galloping nuclear programme.
“This is a pivotal moment for Iran,” Clinton said. “Acceptance fully of this proposal would be a good indication that Iran does not wish to be isolated and does wish to cooperate.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei called on Iran to “to be as forthcoming as possible in responding soon to my recent proposal,” and also appealed for all sides to make compromises.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, visiting Malaysia, called for a review of the proposed deal.
“We have considered this proposal, we have some technical and economic considerations on that,” he told reporters.
“Two days ago we passed our views and observations to the IAEA, so it is very much possible to establish a technical commission to review and reconsider all these issues.”
Mottaki added that Iran will “continue enrichment” of uranium for nuclear power stations requiring fuel.
Earlier Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, told AFP in Vienna: “We are ready to buy the fuel from any supplier under the full surveillance of the IAEA, as we bought from Argentina about 20 years ago with the cooperation of the IAEA.”
He did not clarify whether Iran was rejecting the UN draft plan, which proposes shipping
Soltanieh said Iran is ready for another meeting in Vienna to discuss the technical details of acquiring nuclear fuel.
Mottaki said Iran still has three options for obtaining the fuel it needs: buying directly from other nations, further enriching LEU on its own, or having the fuel processed by another country.
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