Iran is in negotiations with France, Russia, Turkey and the United States on a nuclear fuel swap deal that Teheran hopes will curb sanctions levied against it, The Telegraph reported on Thursday.
According to the report, Iran would send 1,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium and all of its 30 kilograms stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium "to a safe location." France and Russia would supply Teheran with fuel rods for the medical isotope reactor Teheran claims it is enriching uranium to power.
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An official involved in the talks told the Telegraph, "We think the deal is doable," but cautioned that "there's still a lot of detail to be worked through."
Talks between Iran and the P5+1 ended earlier this month without any
signs of progress other than a commitment to meet once again in early
2011 in Turkey.
In May, Turkey and Brazil brokered a deal with Iran, in which it agreed
to hand over about half of its enriched-uranium stockpile in exchange
for fuel in a form that can be used only to run a Teheran reactor that
produces medical isotopes. The swap would take place in Turkey. Russia
and China backed the deal, which Iran said would be supervised by the
IAEA.
In December, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the P5+1 to drop
the intent of halting his country's drive for nuclear technology and
invited the countries to aid in constructing the 20 planned nuclear
power stations.
At the time, he said that "Cooperating in different fields like a fuel
swap, and political, economic and security issues of the world are
topics for negotiations."
Bloomberg contributed to this report.
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