THE TELEGRAPH: Iran has signed a nuclear fuel swap deal to ship 1,200 kilos of low enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for nuclear fuel for a Teheran reactor.
The agreement was signed in the Iranian capital between the foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Brazil after three-way talks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Under the agreement "Turkey will be the place to keep Iran's 3.5 per cent (low enriched) uranium," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters. "One thousand two hundred kilos (of LEU) will be exchanged."
He added that Iran will officially notify the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the agreement "within a week."
"The IAEA should inform the Vienna group (United States, France and Russia) of this proposal," he said of world powers which have wanted Iran since last October to accept a UN-backed deal to ship its enriched uranium abroad.
Israel, which along with many Western powers suspects Iran is using its nuclear enrichment programme to mask a drive for atomic weapons, immediately accused Teheran of "manipulating" Turkey and Brazil over the deal. >>> | Monday, May 17, 2010
