Iran could halt 20 pct uranium enrichment if given fuel-officials

[Chippiewill]

Iran would negotiate on halting higher-grade uranium enrichment if given fuel for a research reactor, senior officials said, reviving a previous offer in a possible attempt to show flexibility in stalled nuclear talks with world powers.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel e arlier in the week: "If our right to enrichment is recognised, we are prepared to offer an exchange. We would voluntarily limit the extent of our enrichment program, but in return we would need a guaranteed supply of the relevant fuels from abroad."

At the heart of Iran's dispute with world powers is its insistence on the right to enrich uranium and that economic sanctions should be lifted before it stops activities that could lead to its achieving the capability to produce nuclear weapons.

The United States and European allies reject such conditions. They say Iran forfeited a right to enrich by having concealed sensitive nuclear work from U.N. inspectors and blocking their inquiry into suspected bomb research.

Mehmanparast, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, spoke on the same day the European Union provisionally approved yet wider economic sanctions complementing U.S. plans for further financial penalties.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/1...8LD0M020121013

It is disgusting that economic sanctions are being leveraged on Iran just because they want fuel for nuclear fission. The US and the EU are so paranoid that they're worried about Iran getting 1% of the way to nuclear weapons. Weapons which they are totally justified in having.

And now Iran are offering to stop their own enrichment program in return for a supply of nuclear fuel and it's been thrown back in their face.

[-:Undertaker:-]

The truth is that none of this is about nuclear weapons just as the lies about Iraqi WMD weren't about weapons or removing Saddam Hussein because of his treatment of certain groups - this is all about removing governments which are unfriendly to the United States and her interests.

Just look at US silence on the Kingdom of Bahrain compared to the Syrian situation at the moment.

And what I have always found ironic is that those who support these types of US-driven wars based on wanting to implement changes in other countries (a proxy Empire) are those who are the most vocal in slamming the likes of the British, French and Belgian Empires - because whatever your view of the morality of Empire, at least they went in and built something rather than just drone bombing the lot and supplying weapons.

[efq]

I don't like anybody having nuclear weapons, they're surely just a showcase weapon? If you drop a nuke eventually it'll come back and bite your ass right?