Iran to stop nuclear enrichment if fuel supply ensured, says Ahmadinejad

Iran is ready for immediate talks with world powers over a nuclear fuel swap deal, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview published in Japan on Friday. 

Reuters

Iran is "ready to resume in late August or in early September" talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany over an exchange of enriched uranium, Ahmadinejad told Yomiuri Shimbun in an exclusive interview in Tehran, published in Japanese.

He hinted that Iran could stop its controversial programme of uranium enrichment if a deal were struck to ensure the supply of nuclear fuel to Tehran.

"We promise to stop enriching uranium to 20 per cent if fuel supply is ensured," he said.

Under a deal proposed in May known as the Tehran Declaration, Iran agreed to ship some of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for 20 percent high-enriched uranium to be supplied at a later date for a research reactor.

Western nations led by Washington strongly oppose Tehran's move to enrich uranium to this level, as they suspect the enrichment programme masks a weapons drive.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that any talks with arch-foe the United States would take place only if Washington drops "sanctions and threats" against Tehran.