IRAN: Iran said on Saturday it was in no hurry to build new uranium enrichment plants, a key element of its controversial nuclear program, and urged Western powers to accept a fuel deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey. Vice President and atomic Chief Ali Akbar Salehi told state news agency IRNA that his organisation was still studying different locations for constructing new enrichment facilities.

“The locations will be finalised after ensuring that they meet the criteria set by us.

“We hope that by the end of this year a location will be fixed after taking all aspects into consideration,” Salehi said. “We are in no hurry in this regard. At the moment we are only identifying locations.”

Iran currently enriches uranium at the central city of Natanz and is building a second such facility near the Shiite shrine city of Qom.

Iran has refused to heed UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment, insisting that it is aimed at peaceful nuclear fuel production.

It denies seeking to make atomic weapons, as suspected by the West.

Salehi also called on Western powers to accept a nuclear fuel swap deal that was brokered by Turkey and Brazil last month as a “dignified” way out of the continuing atomic standoff.

“The best dignified way out of Iran’s nuclear issue for Western countries is to accept the fuel swap,” Salehi said.

He branded the current standoff with world powers as their “self-created quagmire.”

On May 17, Iran signed a deal with temporary UN Security Council members Turkey and Brazil to ship about half of its Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) stockpile to Turkey to be exchanged for higher enriched reactor fuel.

Tehran, Sunday, AFP