The Iranian Foreign Ministry has announced that it is prepared to negotiate a stop to its uranium enrichment program if it could receive from elsewhere the necessary fuel for its research reactor.
Reuters reports that the apparent attempt to show flexibility in the nuclear negotiations with world powers comes as the Iranian economy appears to be suffering from severe strain in large part due to international sanctions imposed against it by the United States and the European Union.
Press TV also reports that Ramin Mehmanparast, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said on Friday in Kazakhstan: “If a guarantee is provided to supply the 20 percent (enriched) fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, our officials are ready to enter talks about 20 percent enrichment.”
Earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told Spiegel: “If our right to enrichment is recognized, we are prepared to offer an exchange. We will limit the dimensions of the enrichment program voluntarily but in return we need guarantees that the necessary fuel will be provided from abroad.”
While the world powers have pinpointed the uranium enrichment program as the problematic factor in their negotiations and called for its shutdown, Iran insists that it has a right to enrich uranium as part of its peaceful nuclear activities.
