A top Iranian lawmaker said yesterday that Tehran could stop refining uranium to 20 percent purity level, the most controversial part of its atomic program, if it gets nuclear fuel required for a research reactor.
“If the fuel for the Tehran research reactor is given, Iran will not insist on continuing the production of the fuel domestically,” state news agency IRNA quoted Member of Parliament (MP) Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of parliament’s commission on foreign policy, as saying.
Iran has infuriated world powers by refining since February uranium to 20 percent level, which when converted into fuel plates or rods, can be used to power nuclear reactors.
World powers want Iran to suspend the sensitive atomic work, accusing Tehran of secretly aiming to make nuclear weapons. The Islamic republic says its atomic program is purely for peaceful purposes.
On June 23, Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iran was “not in a hurry” to produce 20 percent enriched uranium even if it can process 5kg every month.
“We will adjust the production in a way that the workshop for making the fuel plates is equipped,” he said, referring to fuel made from the 20 percent enriched uranium and used to power the Tehran research reactor.
Borujerdi’s remarks come after Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday last week that the US, Russia and France had asked the UN atomic watchdog to organize a meeting with Iran over the fuel deal but on a condition that Tehran stops the 20 percent enrichment work.
Iran began enriching uranium to 20 percent level after a deadlock over a nuclear fuel deal drafted by the UN atomic watchdog in October last year.
That deal envisaged Tehran sending its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for conversion into high enriched material — 20 percent — and returned to Iran as fuel for the reactor which makes medical isotopes.
However, the deal became bogged down after the two sides levied conditions unacceptable to the other.
In May, Brazil and Turkey brokered a counter proposal to facilitate the uranium exchange.
World powers however cold-shouldered the plan and went ahead and voted for a fourth round of UN sanctions against the Islamic republic.
Borujerdi warned yesterday that if world powers implement the sanctions, they “should not expect Iran to continue the Vienna talks.”
He was referring to the fuel deal negotiations in the Austrian capital with the US, Russia, France and the UN atomic watchdog.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS