Iran to Enrich Uranium Even if Fuel Supply Guaranteed

Source: Al-Manar TV, 05-10-2008

Iran will continue with uranium enrichment even if the country is promised supplies of nuclear reactor fuel, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday.

Iran's "unchangeable policy is to be self-sufficient in fuel production for (nuclear) plants," Mottaki told reporters. "We are determined to continue peaceful nuclear work until reaching full self-sufficiency."

The minister was asked whether the Islamic republic would suspend uranium enrichment if it received international guarantees of a fuel supply.

Mottaki said Iran cannot rely on assurances by world powers and most notably the United States, which have not delivered on their nuclear contracts with Iran made before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran says it has a right to enrich uranium to make nuclear fuel as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and denies allegations of seeking atomic weapons.

An Iranian official on Sunday criticized a nuclear deal due to be signed between the United States and India, saying that such cooperation violates the NPT, which India has refused to sign.

"This manner of transferring nuclear technology to non-NPT members will promote double standards," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told the state news agency IRNA. Such cooperation will inevitably "present the international community with new crises," he said.