Conservatives Oppose Proposal to Enrich Outside Iran

While certain prominent conservative figures in the Islamic Republic have voiced their opposition to the proposal to enrich uranium outside Iran, four inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited Iran’s new nuclear facilities located near the city of Qom for the first time.

The IAEA’s inspection of the Fordou nuclear facility takes place at a time when Iran has announced that it will respond next week to the IAEA’s proposal to Iran to deliver its enriched uranium stockpile to Russia for further enrichment necessary for usage in Tehran’s research reactor.

Previously, and according to an announcement by Mohammad ElBaradei, Iran was scheduled to respond to the IAEA’s proposal by Friday, Aban 1.  Iran’s representative at the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltaniyyeh, however, told the ISNA news agency that “no deadline was set in the IAEA’s proposal” and that Iran will present its response in the coming week.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Majlis speaker Ali Larijani voiced its opposition to sending abroad Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and accused Western nations of attempting to trick Iran.

He told ISNA on Sunday, “The feeling I have, which was especially reinforced by the latest trip to Geneva and the conversations that we had, is that the Westerners are insisting on going in a direction to cheat and impose their will on us; because they said we will give Iran 20 percent enriched fuel after you give us your enriched material.”  

Noting that he sees no connection between the two issues, Larijani added, “My guess is that the Americans have made a secret deal with certain countries to take (low-)enriched uranium away from us under the pretext of providing nuclear fuel. We hope Iranian officials will pay due attention to this issue.”

Majlis vice-speaker, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, also voiced his opposition to the IAEA’s proposal: “It is not acceptable for us to give up our 3.5 percent fuel for 20 percent enriched uranium.”

Bahonar added, “Our official position is that they must provide our fuel, and we have announced that if the international regime does not do that we will provide the fuel ourselves.”

Larijani and Bahonar’s oppositions are voiced while, according to BBC, the proposal to ship Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile abroad for fuel-grade enrichment was first presented by the Iranian president.

On September 30, one day before the meeting between Iranian officials and the 5+1 Group in Geneva, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters that one issue on the table is the provision of fuel-grade uranium for the reactor in Tehran: “We are ready even to give 3.5 percent-enriched uranium and then they can enrich it more and deliver to us 19.75 or 20 percent-enriched uranium.”