Clinton tells Iran to adhere to plan

Tehran questions uranium swap, talks of buying fuel instead

TEHRAN -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday urged Iran to stick to an agreement to ship low-enriched uranium abroad for processing for use in a Tehran research reactor, after a senior official Iranian official said his country wants to instead purchase nuclear fuel.

Clinton said there should be no backing away from the deal with the United States and other countries, which was intended to slow any Iranian efforts at developing uranium for a nuclear bomb. "This is a pivotal moment for Iran," she said while traveling in North Africa. "Acceptance of this proposal would be a good indication that Iran does not wish to be isolated."

Her comments came hours after the first Iranian statement on the issue since Iran formally submitted its response on the proposed deal to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Thursday. The contents of that response have not been made public.

"The key point is guarantee of providing the fuel," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency regarding the deal.

The United States, Russia and France formally announced their acceptance of the draft agreement last month.

In talks in Geneva on Oct. 1, Iran tentatively agreed to the arrangement, under which nearly 80 percent of its low-enriched uranium stockpile would go to Russia and France to be fashioned into fuel for the research reactor, which produces isotopes for medical purposes. As part of the deal, the United States would support IAEA efforts to help Iran ensure the safe operation of the reactor, built by the United States in the 1960s.

Soltanieh stressed that Iran wants more assurances that the exported fuel would be enriched to a higher level and returned. "With our past experience with non-trustable elements, in spite of paying for fuel, we didn't get it," Soltanieh said, echoing concerns by leading Iranian politicians, lawmakers and even opposition leaders that Western nations were trying to take Iran's stockpile but not return the altered uranium.

Providing more guarantees for Iran would prove to be an "important and historic opportunity" for the IAEA and world powers to show their good intentions, Soltanieh said.

Soltanieh said Iran's other option would be to buy medium-enriched uranium on the world market, which he said it is officially entitled to do as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He noted that Iran was able to buy a batch of medium-grade uranium from Argentina in 1991 without problems.

Staff writer Karen DeYoung, traveling with Clinton in Marrakesh, Morocco, contributed to this report.