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Dialogue only way to resolve nuclear dispute: Ahmadinejad

White House urges swift Iran reply on nuclear deal
Washington (AFP) Nov 9 - The White House on Monday pressed Iran to quickly respond to a deal that would supply the Islamic Republic with enriched nuclear fuel, or else risk fresh sanctions. "The events of the next few days and the past few days are important for Iran to contemplate as they make decision moving forward," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "They have to essentially agree to their previous agreement on the research reactor, and I think the world is watching and waiting for their conclusive decisions on that," he stressed. With regard to how Iran is dealt with when that decision has been made, Gibbs said: "I would point you to what (Russian) President (Dmitry) Medvedev said, over the weekend, which was: if Iran fails to take steps in its control to demonstrate its responsibility to the world, sanctions may be necessary."

Under the plans, thrashed out last month under the auspices of IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, Iran will ship out most of its known low-enriched uranium - about 1,200 kilograms - to Russia for further enrichment. The material will then be turned into fuel by France and sent back to Iran, in a bid to prevent Tehran further enriching the uranium itself in a suspected drive to develop nuclear weapons. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that the United States had set no "formal deadline" for Iran to respond, but he reiterated Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's earlier warning that "our patience is not infinite." "We hope that Iran will make the right choice and accept the proposal. But we will consult on next steps if Iran ultimately decides to not take this opportunity," Kelly told reporters.

Iran ignores US proposals on uranium: report
Washington (AFP) Nov 9 - The administration of US President Barack Obama has told Iran it is willing to allow the country to send its stockpile of enriched uranium to any of several nations, including Turkey, for safekeeping, The New York Times reported Monday. Citing unnamed administration officials and diplomats, the newspaper said the overtures had been made through the International Atomic Energy Agency over the past two weeks. But all of them have been ignored, the report noted. Instead, the Iranians have revived an old counterproposal that calls for international arms inspectors to take custody of much of Iran's fuel, but keep it on Kish, a Persian Gulf resort island that is part of Iran.

A senior Obama administration official said that proposal had been rejected because leaving the nuclear material on Iranian territory would allow for the possibility that the Iranians could evict the international inspectors at any moment, the paper said. That happened in North Korea in 2003, and within months the country had converted its fuel into the material for several nuclear weapons, The Times said. The intermediary in the exchanges between Washington and Tehran has been Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA director general, according to the report. He confirmed some of the proposals - including one to send Iran's fuel to Turkey, which has nurtured close relations with Iran - in interviews in New York late last week, The Times said. But members of the Obama administration said that they had now all but lost hope that Iran would follow through with an agreement reached in Geneva on October 1 to send its fuel out of the country temporarily, the paper said.
by Staff Writers
 Istanbul (AFP) Nov 9, 2009
 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday told the West that dialogue and cooperation were the only way to resolve the dispute over his country's nuclear push which he said was a "natural right".

Efforts to confront or threaten Iran have left the West with "empty hands", Ahmadinejad told reporters in Istanbul after attending an economic summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

"The only way is to have cooperation and dialogue with Iran," the Iranian leader said through an interpreter. "We made them a proposal: give up confrontation with us and choose the way of cooperation and dialogue."

He also accused Western countries of treating Iran's nuclear drive politically, arguing that certain countries had "sided against Iran because they want to rule the whole world".

"Peaceful nuclear energy is a natural right of Iran," Ahmadinejad said.

The Iranian leader earlier attacked capitalism for the global financial meltdown and said economic programmes based on Islamic principles offered the way out.

"The world needs radical change," he said. "The world system based on usury has collapsed, proving its failure... We have to draw up programmes based on Islamic economic thinkers."

His comments coincided with increasing international pressure on Iran to agree to a UN-brokered plan to provide the Islamic Republic with enriched uranium for a Tehran reactor.

Under the proposals thrashed out in talks with France, Russia and the United States, Iran would ship most of its own stocks of low-enriched uranium abroad in return for fuel to power a research reactor in Tehran.

The proposals were designed to assuage fears that Iran could divert some of its uranium and further enrich it to reach the higher levels of purity required to make an atomic bomb.

World powers have endorsed the plan but Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, has yet to give a final response.

The White House on Monday called on Iran to respond soon to the proposals or risk fresh sanctions as a top US official said that Washington wanted to give Tehran "some space" in the negotiations on the proposals.

"We are in extra innings on these negotiations," Washington's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Glyn Davies, told reporters in Vienna. "We want to give Iran some space. It's a tough decision."

The New York Times reported Monday that Washington had told Iran it is willing to allow the country to send its stockpile of enriched uranium to any of several nations, including Turkey, for safekeeping.

But the paper added that the Iranians were unwilling to ship out their uranium, proposing instead that the IAEA take custody of it, but keep it on Kish, a Gulf resort island that is part of Iran.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, whose country is nurturing closer ties with neighbouring Iran, expressed Monday hope for "concrete and positive" results on the proposal package and said Ankara was ready to "play a facilitative role".

Turkey, a NATO member, has in recent years pushed for closer ties with Iran, Sudan and Syria, raising concerns that the country is turning its face to the East.

After a visit to Iran last month marked by the signing of bilateral partnerships on trade and energy, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan firmly denied that his country was shedding its pro-Western outlook.

But he has accused the West of treating Iran unfairly over its nuclear programme -- earning praise from Ahmadinejad -- and argued that efforts to rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons must also focus on Israel, the region's sole but undeclared nuclear power.

burs-han/ms/cjo

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NUKEWARS
Iran set to reject UN-brokered nuclear plan: leading MP
 Tehran (AFP) Nov 7, 2009
 Iran has decided to reject proposals from major powers for the supply of nuclear fuel, a leading member of parliament said on Saturday, in a serious setback for UN-brokered efforts to allay Western concerns about its atomic ambitions. Under the plan thrashed out in talks with France, Russia and the United States, Iran was to have shipped out most of its stocks of low-enriched uranium in retu ... read more






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