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Turkey, Iran, Brazil to discuss nuclear swap deal

24 July 2010 19:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Brazil are to meet in Istanbul Sunday to discuss the nuclear swap deal which they agreed in May, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
Under the deal reached in Tehran, Iran agreed to send some of its uranium abroad, reviving a plan drafted by the United Nations with the aim of keeping its nuclear work in check.
The accord failed to prevent fresh sanctions from the United Nations, European Union and United States. But Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said this month he still saw a chance of Iran doing the swap on the basis of their agreement.
Davutoglu will first meet and hold a joint news conference with his Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim at 11 am (0800 GMT) Sunday, the foreign ministry official said.
They will then hold a three-way meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. It was not clear if they would then hold another news conference.
The West fears Iran is working to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran denies the charge, saying its nuclear program is peaceful.
Under the May deal, Iran agreed to transfer 1,200 kg (2,646 lb) of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey within a month and in return receive, within a year, 120 kg of 20 percent-enriched uranium for use in a medical research reactor.
Western diplomats said removing from Iran 1,200 kg of LEU -- enough, if highly enriched, to make a nuclear weapon -- was less significant than when it was first proposed because Iran’s LEU stockpile had almost doubled in the interim.
The U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran on June 9. Brazil and Turkey voted against, angry at the West’s dismissal of their deal which they said made new sanctions unnecessary.
Iran has said it is prepared to return to long-frozen talks with world powers on certain conditions, and not before the end of August.