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NUKEWARS
Iran could halt 20 pct uranium enrichment if given fuel: MP
by Staff Writers
Tehran (AFP) July 4, 2010


Iran says it has 'evidence' its scientist abducted by CIA
Tehran (AFP) July 4, 2010 - Iran has submitted "evidence" to the Swiss embassy that its nuclear scientist was abducted by US intelligence agents, the English language Press TV website reported on Sunday. "The evidence related to the abduction of Shahram Amiri by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) has been handed over to the Swiss embassy in Tehran" foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanaparast was quoted as saying. The Swiss embassy manages US interests in Iran since Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic ties.

"We expect that based on the US administration's obligations... the US authorities will announce the results of their investigation regarding this Iranian national," Mehmanaparast said. Iranian officials have long maintained that Amiri was kidnapped by US agents from Saudi Arabia last year. On June 29, Iranian television had screened a video of a man claiming to be Amiri and saying that he had managed to escape from the hands of US intelligence agents in Virginia.

"I could be re-arrested at any time by US agents... I am not free and I'm not allowed to contact my family. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government will be responsible," he said. "I ask Iranian officials and organisations that defend human rights to raise pressure on the US government for my release and return to my country," the man said, adding he has not "betrayed" Iran. A US official on Tuesday dismissed the allegations in the Iranian broadcast. Amiri disappeared in June 2009 after arriving in Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage. Iran accused US agents of abducting him with the help of Saudi intelligence services. ABC news in the United States reported in March that Amiri had defected and was working with the CIA. US officials have rejected these allegations.

A top Iranian lawmaker said on Sunday that Tehran could stop refining uranium to 20 percent purity level, the most controversial part of its atomic programme, 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 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 programme 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 five kilograms 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 Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov said on June 29 that the United States, Russia and France had asked the UN atomic watchdog to organise 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 last October.

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.

But 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 Sunday 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 United States, Russia, France and the UN atomic watchdog.

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Obama signs toughest-ever US sanctions on Iran
Washington (AFP) July 1, 2010
President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law the toughest ever US sanctions on Iran, which he said would strike at Tehran's capacity to finance its nuclear program and deepen its isolation. The measures, on top of new UN Security Council and European sanctions, aim to choke off Iran's access to imports of refined petroleum products like gasoline and jet fuel and curb its access to the ... read more


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