Iran will reconsider a nuclear fuel swap deal if world powers agree to impose further sanctions on the Islamic Republic, Interfax news agency quoted Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow as saying on Tuesday.
“If there are new sanctions, it will become obvious to the Iranian public that the “5 + 1” group is hiding evil intentions and pursuing political objectives. This would force us to revise the Tehran accords,” Mahmoud Reza Sadjadi was quoted as saying.
Under the deal, agreed with Turkey and Brazil, Iran would send 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey in return for fuel rods to keep a Tehran medical research reactor running.
Western critics say the deal would still leave Iran with enough uranium for one bomb, as it has stockpiled more LEU since the idea was first proposed in 2009. “We believe that by this (deal) Iran has demonstrated its goodwill,” Mr Sadjadi said. Meanwhile, the US is consulting its international partners on Iran’s nuclear fuel swapping agreement with Brazil and Turkey, which it has received from the International Atomic Energy Agency, a US official has said.
At the same time, the official said that the US remains concerned with regard to Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
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Filmmaker gets bail
Tehran, May 25: Celebrated Iranian film director Jafar Panahi, who has been in custody since March, was released on bail on Tuesday, the Tehran prosecutor’s office said in a statement carried by the Fars news agency, but his wife denied he was yet free.
“Jafar Panahi was released from Tehran’s Evin prison on Tuesday after posting bail of $200,000,” the news agency quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying. The filmmaker’s wife, Tahereh Saeedi, confirmed that she had posted bail for her husband but insisted he remained in custody. “No he has not been freed — I know better — but I have deposited the bail,” Ms Saeedi said. —AFP