Iran said Monday it is ready to discuss the issue of exchanging atomic fuel in upcoming talks with world powers about its overall nuclear programme, ISNA news agency reported. "We are ready to hold simultaneous talks with the 5+1 and the Vienna group about the fuel swap," ISNA quoted Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.
Iran and the 5+1 - the permanent UN Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany - are to hold talks on Tehran's overall nuclear programme on November 15-18. The talks, which have been deadlocked since October 2009, are aimed at addressing Western suspicions Iran is masking a weapons drive under what the Islamic republic says is a purely civilian atomic programme.
Iran is engaged in separate negotiations with the Vienna group comprising France, Russia, the United States and the UN atomic watchdog over the issue of procuring nuclear fuel for a Tehran-based research reactor. Those talks have also been blocked since the middle of last October after the two groups failed to reach an agreement over the initial proposal brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The UN watchdog's proposal envisaged Iran sending 1,200 kilogrammes of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for conversion into the fuel rods required for the Tehran reactor. In May, Iran responded by its own counter-proposal brokered by Turkey and Brazil, which was cold-shouldered by the West which later backed new UN sanctions against Iran on June 9. Iran has in the past favoured holding talks over the fuel swap separately and not during negotiations on its overall nuclear programme.