IRAN WILL ship more than a tonne of enriched uranium to Turkey as part of an exchange deal in which Tehran will be given nuclear fuel rods for a medical research reactor.
The deal is intended to defuse the crisis over Iran’s nuclear aspirations at a time when a new wave of sanctions is being discussed in the UN security council and Israel is contemplating military action.
The details of the deal, mediated by Brazil, have yet to be finalised and it would have to win the backing of other nuclear powers and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before it is implemented.
The exchange would entail Iran shipping 1,200kg of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey in return for the fuel rods. It is based on an agreement Iran struck last year in Vienna with Russia, France, the US and the IAEA. Earlier this year Tehran withdrew from that agreement, suggesting instead that the exchange be carried out on Iranian soil and in smaller batches – terms that were unacceptable to the other parties as they would not reduce Iran’s reserves of fissile material, potentially useful in making a bomb.
Western diplomats reacted cautiously, pointing out that at the time of the Vienna agreement 1,200kg represented about three-quarters of Iran’s LEU stockpile. Now it is about half. Even if it is shipped out, Iran would soon be able to replenish stocks sufficiently to make a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists it has no intention of making nuclear weapons.
After the breakdown of the Vienna deal Iran began manufacturing its own 20 per cent enriched uranium, the level required to fabricate fuel rods for the Tehran research reactor, which makes isotopes for treating cancer and other medical uses. The main text of yesterday’s agreement does not make clear if Iran would stop producing 20 per cent uranium.
Yesterday’s agreement states: “The Islamic Republic of Iran agrees to deposit 1,200kg LEU in Turkey. While in Turkey this LEU will continue to be the property of Iran. Iran and the IAEA may station observers to monitor the safekeeping of the LEU in Turkey.”
Under the terms of the deal Iran would notify the IAEA of its intention to proceed within seven days. Then the other parties to the Vienna deal – the US, Russia, France and the IAEA – would have to agree, before “further details of the exchange will be elaborated through a written agreement and proper arrangement between Iran and the Vienna Group” in which the latter would promise to deliver the 20 per cent enriched fuel rods. Iran would then “deposit” its 1,200kg of (3.5 per cent -enriched) LEU in Turkey within a month, and the fuel rods would be delivered within a year.
“In case the provisions of this declaration are not respected, Turkey, upon the request of Iran, will return swiftly and unconditionally Iran’s LEU to Iran,” the agreement says. – (Guardian service)