Voices rise against nuclear deal

Marayam Sinaiee
Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 03. 2009 10:11PM UAE / November 3. 2009 6:11PM GMT

TEHRAN // The government is under increasing domestic pressure from across the political spectrum to reject the IAEA-brokered and US-backed nuclear deal to ship a large quantity of the country’s low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment.

The pressure grew on Iran as the outgoing IAEA director general, Mohammed ElBaradei, at the UN on Monday urged Iran to respond “soon” to the proposal and send its uranium to Russia and France for conversion into fuel rods.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist opposition leader and a former presidential aspirant, said on Saturday: “It seems that most of the fruit of the country’s nuclear activities, which has caused … several UN sanctions resolutions, should be delivered to other countries [according to the deal] in the hope that they might be kind enough to provide us with some nuclear fuel at some time in the future. Can this be called a victory?”

The parliament’s minority reformist faction has also expressed concerns about the proposal to ship the low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing into fuel for a nuclear reactor that produces medical isotopes.

The members of the faction are against enrichment abroad. They believe that the deal is against the original plan to have a full uranium-enrichment cycle in the country, the faction’s spokesman, Dariush Ghanbari, was quoted as saying by Parleman News, the official website of the Imam’s Way faction.

They also believe that buying fuel directly from a producer, instead of transferring low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for conversion into fuel rods for the use in the Tehran reactor, is a less costly process, Mr Ghanbari said.

Two of the influential Larijani brothers, who, as chief justice and speaker of parliament, head the country’s judiciary and legislative bodies, as well as several prominent hardline and conservative figures have also spoken out against the deal, saying that the country may lose control over its enriched uranium if the deal is accepted. They have said they believe Russia or France may withhold some of the uranium sent abroad for enrichment.

“I am against shipping out even as much as one kilogram of the fruit of our national nuclear efforts. I think the government has no right to do so,” the conservative legislator and head of the parliament’s research centre, Ahmad Tavakkoli, was quoted by Mehr News Agency as saying.

According to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which Iran is a signatory, countries in possession of nuclear technology are obliged to assist other member states in their peaceful nuclear programmes, Mr Tavakkoli said.

Government officials have been evasive in responding to the IAEA and the western powers – led by the US, the UK and France – and have only hinted at their willingness to “buy fuel” under the pact and further talks to modify its conditions.

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, was quoted by Iran’s Press TV on Monday as saying Iran was prepared to buy fuel from any supplier under the surveillance of the UN nuclear monitor for its Tehran medical research reactor. “The core issue is assurance and guarantee for the supply of the fuel.”

The foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the D8 Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, also suggested Iran was willing to “buy” fuel. Mr Mottaki added that Iran wanted the IAEA to form a committee to “review the deal”.

The IAEA and western powers, however, seem to be expecting a definite and prompt answer rather than further talks on modifying the deal. “This is a unique and fleeting opportunity to reverse course from confrontation to co-operation and should therefore not be missed,” Mr ElBaradei, said in his final report to the UN General Assembly.

The British foreign secretary, David Miliband, on Monday told reporters after talks with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow that Mr ElBaradei had set a deadline of today for Iran’s response.

Western powers have threatened new and more serious sanctions on Iran for its nuclear programme if Iran does not co-operate in resolving its nuclear stand-off with the West before December.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned yesterday that Iran would not relent to pressure from the US, which he said was “a really arrogant power”.

“The Iranian nation will not be deceived by the seemingly reconciliatory words of the US and will in no manner withdraw from [defending] its independence, freedom, national interests and rights,” said Ayatollah Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters.

msinaiee@thenational.ae