Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Tuesday that world powers would regret any moves to slap new sanctions on Iran, while stressing that Tehran was still ready for a UN-brokered nuclear fuel deal.
His latest salvo came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured the Gulf to seek backing for possible sanctions against Iran for defiantly pursuing its nuclear program.
“If anybody seeks to create problems for Iran, our response will not be like before,” Ahmadinejad told a packed news conference in Tehran.
“Something in response will be done which will make them [the world powers] regret” their move, he said.
Ahmadinejad said negotiations over a UN-drafted nuclear fuel exchange were “not closed yet,” and expressed readiness to buy the material even from Iran’s arch-foe the US.
Last year the International Atomic Energy Agency proposed sending Iranian low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment, denying Tehran refining capacity world powers fear could be used to help build an atomic bomb.
The offer would have seen the uranium returned to Iran in a high-grade form for use in a medical research reactor, but Tehran rejected the plan.
Ahmadinejad insisted that the exchange had to be “simultaneous,” an Iranian stance that has led to a deadlock over the deal.
“We are ready for an exchange even with the United States. The US can come and give us their 20 percent fuel and we will pay them if they want, or we can give them 3.5 percent fuel,” he said.
“But the swap should take place simultaneously and we will put our fuel under the supervision of the [UN atomic] agency in Iran,” he added.
He did not say if the exchange must take place inside Iran as insisted on by other Iranian officials.
Ahmadinejad also indicated Tehran could suspend enriching uranium to the 20 percent level if world powers supplied it the required fuel for the Tehran reactor.
“We are not insisting on doing this [20 percent enrichment] although we have the capability,” he said.
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