Senior Iranian lawmakers rejected on Saturday any possibility of shipping uranium abroad for further enrichment. Prominent parliament deputy Alaeddin Boroujerdi conveyed Iran won't ship its low enriched uranium abroad in a single batch or in several shipments as suggested by the U.N..
"Nothing will be given of the 1,200 kilograms (of low enriched uranium) ... to the other side in exchange for 20 percent enriched fuel, not in one batch nor in several. It is out of question," the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Boroujerdi as saying Saturday.
Another conservative lawmaker, Hossein Naqvi Hosseini, said Iran had three options to buy fuel for its reactor; to purchase the fuel from other countries; to accept the U.N.-brokered plan; or to enrich uranium to a higher level domestically and produce the required fuel itself. "The countries proposing ... are not trusted by the Islamic Republic of Iran because they didn't carry out their obligations to us in the past. Therefore, the second option is out of question," ISNA quoted Hosseini as saying.
"Exchange of uranium in return for fuel is out of question," another conservative lawmaker Ali Aghazadeh was quoted by ISNA as saying. "We have reached this point ourselves and we need to continue the path ourselves. It is their (U.S. and its allies) obligations to give us fuel. If they fail to do so, we will supply it ourselves."
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday hinted that Moscow could back sanctions against Tehran if it fails to take a constructive stance in international talks over its nuclear program. He told the German magazine Der Spiegel that it would be better to avoid sanctions.
© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
