Iran has no plan for U.S. ties, nuclear fuel swap still on table

TEHRAN, March 8 (MNA) – A senior Foreign Ministry official said on Sunday that Iran has no plan to establish relations with the United States and reiterated Tehran’s position that the proposal for a simultaneous nuclear fuel swap is still on the table.

“There is no issue as (establishing) ties with this country,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in an address to a number of students from Shahid Beheshti university.

As long as the U.S. does not respect Iran’s rights and does not change its discriminatory approach, Tehran will not consider establishing ties with it, Mehmanparast stated.

He went on to say that Tehran will produce nuclear fuel enriched to 20 percent to power its nuclear research reactor if it does not receive the needed fuel.

However, he insisted that Tehran is still ready for a simultaneous swap of its low enriched uranium (LEU) with 20 percent enriched fuel on the Iranian soil.

Iran announced last week that it had sent a letter to International Atomic Energy Agency Director Chief, Yukiya Amano, urging the UN once again to provide the country with nuclear fuel for its research reactor, an offer widely seen as a confidence-building measure.

Iran has already started enriching uranium to higher degree for the medical reactor.