JERUSALEM (JTA) — Iran would send its uranium to another country for enrichment if it gets nuclear fuel in a simultaneous exchange, according to reports.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a news conference Tuesday that it would send its low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment if it received 20 percent pure uranium processed abroad at the same time as a guarantee, according to reports.
"Iran is not opposed to sending uranium abroad, but is considering how to do that," he said.
Under a plan brokered by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran would relinquish the bulk of the uranium it had enriched to low levels for further enrichment in Russia and then in France to medical research levels; it then would be returned.
The process would take about eight months and effectively would delay any plans to further enrich the uranium to bomb-making levels for that amount of time.
Iran rejected the offer last week, though IAEA head Mohamad ElBaradei said because it was an oral and not a written response, he did not consider it a final answer.
Last Friday, representatives of the United States met with Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany in Brussels to discuss levying additional sanctions on Iran and afterward urged Iran to reconsider the enriched uranium proposal.
