Iran inks nuclear fuel swap deal with Turkey, Brazil

Ammar Zaidi
Tehran, May 17 (PTI) In a bid to ward off fresh UN
sanctions being pushed by the US, Iran Monday announced it
would ship 1,200 kgs of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in
a nuclear fuel swap deal.
Under the agreement, Turkey will enrich to higher
levels the Iranian uranium and ship it back for use in Iranian
medical reactors.
The agreement was signed by Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a
breakfast meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
said here.
Under the new deal, brokered by Brazil and Turkey,
Iran will ship 1,200 kgs of uranium enriched to low levels to
Turkey to trade it for fuel rods containing uranium enriched
to higher levels. The fuel rods could be used in a medical
research reactor.
Mottaki said in the event the deal is not implemented,
Turkey would be obliged to return Iran's uranium.
"Based on the agreement signed this morning, if the
swap does not take place, then Turkey will be obliged to send
back our dispatched uranium immediately and unconditionally,"
Mottaki said.
The deal is expected to be presented to the UN's
nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency within a
week.
And after its approval, Iran is prepared to ship the
low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey within one month.
In return, Iran would expect to get 20 per cent highly
enriched uranium to use in its research reactors from the
"Vienna group" within one year.
The deal is aimed at addressing key concerns of the
west which did not want Iran to enrich uranium as it feared
this could be used for making bombs.
"Iran, Brazil and Turkey have signed a deal for
nuclear fuel swap in Turkish territory," Mottaki said.
The deal comes at a time when the US is pushing for
fresh UN sanctions against Iran alleging that it was not
cooperating with the IAEA in addressing the concerns of the
international community over its nuclear programme.
Brazil and Turkey, along with India, have been
opposing sanctions against Iran and have been advocating
dialogue to resolve the issue.
There was no immediate comment from the US or other
major western powers over the deal, but Israel described it as
a "manipulated deal".
Brazil and Turkey, both non-permanent members of the
UN Security Council, had resisted US-led efforts to push
through new sanctions against Iran over its failure to accept
repeated ultimatums to stop uranium enrichment activity.
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