Iran says two nuclear fuel options on table

• Source: Global Times
• [03:15 October 27 2009]
• Comments

Iran said Monday that it could deliver abroad some of its low-enriched uranium to be upgraded, or just buy the fuel directly, as a UN team was due to carry further checks on a newly revealed atomic plant.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran was mulling the UN-brokered deal that envisages shipping out Tehran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad to be converted into nuclear fuel and would announce a decision within days.

"For the supply of (nuclear) fuel, we may buy it like in the past or we may deliver a part of our (LEU) fuel that we don't need now," Mottaki told the official IRNA news agency. "Both options are on the table."

Mottaki is the senior-most official to talk about buying the fuel directly since the UN atomic watchdog brokered a deal in Vienna that suggests shipping out Tehran's LEU abroad to be converted into fuel.

But the UN-led offer has been met with tough opposition from top Tehran officials who suspect Western powers of creating obstacles for Iran's uranium-enrichment drive, which they want suspended.

"We're making a decision to choose which option is on the agenda of Iran, and in the next few days the decision will be announced," Mottaki said, adding that Tehran was still examining the UN-led deal.

He told IRNA that even close ally China was welcome to provide the fuel.