Iran: Arab Deal Won't Stop Nuke Projects

Iran welcomed a recent Arab proposal Saturday to set up a consortium to provide Mideast countries with enriched uranium but said it would not halt its own enrichment activities, the official news agency IRNA reported.

"We welcome proposals for our participation in joint enrichment projects with other countries, but it won't be acceptable if the condition is to stop enrichment in Iran," IRNA quoted Javad Vaeedi, a top nuclear negotiator, as saying.

Vaeedi was responding to a proposal outlined Thursday by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal under which Arab states in the Persian Gulf would set up a consortium to provide Iran with enriched uranium to help resolve the country's standoff with the West over its controversial nuclear program.

The Saudi official told the Middle East Economic Digest that the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE - would develop a uranium enrichment plant in a neutral state outside the Mideast, such as Switzerland, to provide nuclear fuel to the region.

"Raising such ideas is no problem as long as they don't contradict Iran's rights," IRNA quoted Vaeedi as saying. "All of Iran's resistance has been to preserve its rights regarding uranium enrichment."

The U.S. and several of its Western allies believe Iran is using its nuclear program as a cover for weapons development, but Tehran denies the charge, insisting it is focused on electricity generation.

Iran says it is now operating about 3,000 centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant in central Iran and plans to expand it up to 54,000 centrifuges, the level of a full scale enrichment program.

Two rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to halt enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel to generate electricity or fissile material for a warhead.

The five permanent Security Council members, plus Germany, agreed Friday to come up with a new sanctions resolution if November reports by the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency do not show improved Iranian cooperation.

Earlier this week, Iran and the IAEA ended a third and final round of talks aimed at resolving remaining questions on Iran's P-1 and P-2 centrifuges, machines used to enrich uranium.