TEHRAN – Turkey is prepared to mediate with the West to defuse the nuclear standoff with Iran in a bid to avoid economically damaging new sanctions, its foreign minister said yesterday.
On an official visit to Tehran, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey could help revive a diplomatic solution to the dispute that would involve Iran sending some of its uranium abroad in exchange for higher grade fuel.
The US and its European allies fear Iran’s uranium enrichment is aimed at making a bomb. A deal negotiated last October, for Iran to hand over some of its uranium stocks to be enriched abroad, fell apart soon afterwards.
“If such a will exists from our Iranian friends and if they think it prudent that we play a role, we will do so,” Mr Davutoglu told a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart.
“Turkey, as a third country, is ready to play an intermediary role in the uranium swap and Iran’s other nuclear issues.”
Iran has said any fuel swap must happen on its territory. It says it needs the higher-grade material to make medical isotopes and has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons.
At a separate news conference, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki’s spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, was asked if a fuel swap could happen in Turkey.
“Friendly countries including Turkey are trying hard to make the other party understand our nuclear rights,” he replied.
“There are different ideas but these are only doable if our conditions are observed.”
On Monday a US state department spokesman said Washington was still open to discussing the uranium deal. – (Reuters)