Iran official says country ready to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, as per UN proposal
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) _ Iran is ready to exchange the bulk of its stockpile of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods _ as proposed by the U.N. _ but according to its own mechanisms and timetable, the foreign minister said Saturday.
Speaking to reporters at a regional security conference in Bahrain, Manochehr Mottaki said Iran agreed with a U.N. deal proposed in October in which up to 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of its uranium would be exchanged for fuel rods to power its research reactor.
"We accepted the proposal in principle," he said through a translator. "We suggested in the first phase we give you 400 kilograms of 3.5 percent enriched uranium and you give us the equivalent in 20 percent uranium."
Iran has about 3,300 pounds (1,500 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium and needs to refine to 20 percent to operate a research reactor that produces medical isotopes.
The U.S. and its allies fear that if Iran continues to develop its uranium-enriching process, it could eventually develop material for a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies.
The International Atomic Energy Agency proposed in October that Iran ship its uranium out of the country to be further refined by France and Russia and turned into fuel rods, which cannot be turned into weapons.
Iran has been giving mixed signals over the deal, including several statements from lawmakers rejecting it outright.
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Pakistani official says South Waziristan offensive over; army may enter new tribal area
ISLAMABAD (AP) _ Pakistan has wrapped up its army offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, but now may send its soldiers after militants in another part of the lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border, the prime minister said Saturday.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said troops may now move into the Orakzai tribal region, which lies farther north. That plan illustrates the intractable nature of the militant problem facing this nuclear-armed U.S. ally. Even as the army pounces on armed extremists in one part of the volatile northwest, they often melt away to other stretches of the rugged, barely governed territory.
"The operation in South Waziristan is over. Now there are talks about Orakzai," Gilani told reporters in televised remarks from the eastern city of Lahore. He did not elaborate.
Pakistan's army launched a ground offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan in mid-October _ a move that has led militants to carry out retaliatory bombings nationwide. The military still issues daily reports of its battlefield actions there, but it is clear that that the activity has slowed down.