Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran would welcome a proposed uranium exchange deal with Russia, the United States and France. "We welcome the uranium exchange deal and are ready for cooperation, but the countries involved in the deal should also fulfil their commitments," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Mashad in north-eastern Iran that was broadcast on television.
Ahmadinejad did not say whether Iran would definitely accept the deal as it was agreed in Vienna last week or demand amendments.
According to Iran's Mehr news agency, Iran was to present the Iranian reply to the proposed uranium exchange deal Thursday to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.
The United States, Russia and France have agreed to a plan to reduce Iran's enriched uranium stock by processing it abroad. The deal would build some confidence that Iran would not use its uranium to make bombs but rather as fuel for a medical-use reactor.
Ahmadinejad said that the uranium exchange deal would be a test for the IAEA to play its "real role" in assisting countries pursuing civil nuclear technology.
He said the deal would also be an occasion for testing the honesty of the world powers to prove that they would, "unlike in the last thirty years (after the 1979 Islamic revolution)," fulfil their commitments.
According to the deal, Iranian low-enriched (3.5 per cent) uranium would be exchanged with high-enriched (20 per cent) uranium via Russia and France to be used in a reactor in the capital Tehran, which is a basic research reactor producing medical isotopes.
Iran has agreed in principle but reportedly wants some changes such as not exchanging its whole 1.2 tons of uranium but either in several phases or purchasing part of the high-enriched uranium.
The Iranian president once again reiterated that despite the deal with the world powers Iran would not retreat "one iota" from its legitimate right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology.
Observers say it remains to be seen to what extent the uranium exchange deal would ease the differences between Iran and the world powers in the nuclear dispute.
The main demand by the world powers from Iran was suspending uranium enrichment which Ahmadinejad once again rejected in his speech in Mashad.
Khabar news network further reported Thursday that European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili agreed in a phone call to resume talks but did not fix a date.
Following the talks in Geneva on October 1, Iran and the five permanent United Nations Security Council member states plus Germany agreed to resume talks at the end of October but postponed the meeting after Iran's reply to the uranium exchange deal was delayed.
