Sunday, November 18, 2007
Iran's fuel cycle: Blink, or just another stall?
This is interesting and surprising, but not yet obviously sincere:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to discuss with Arab nations a plan to enrich uranium outside the region in a neutral country such as Switzerland.
He made the announcement in an interview for Dow Jones Newswires in Saudi Arabia where he is attending a petroleum exporters' summit.
Gulf Arab states recently proposed setting up a consortium to provide nuclear fuel to Iran and others.
The scheme could allay fears Iran is enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb.
Naturally, I find it very hard to believe that Iran would surrender its nuclear fuel cycle to a "consortium" of Arabs. Iran has rejected numerous proposals to buy fuel from foreign sources, including proposals from Russia and France to do the same thing. What would have made it suddenly change its mind? Trust in its co-religionists? Cynic that I am, I suspect this trial balloon is really meant to distract the West, once again, from escalating its confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Sun Nov 18, 06:33:00 PM:
Is there any reason to believe that Switzerland would go along with such a scheme?
By , at
Sun Nov 18, 09:07:00 PM:
From Iran's Press TV:
Iran has rejected the reports that President Ahmadinejad has accepted a proposal by Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium in a third country.
Dow Jones Newswires quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday as saying that he would consult with Arab nations on a plan 'to enrich uranium outside the region in a neutral country such as Switzerland.'
The Presidential Office told Press TV that the President meant that Tehran would study the proposal, which is brought forward by a brotherly and friendly country, like other proposals.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=31613§ionid=351020104
By , at
Sun Nov 18, 09:52:00 PM:
I haven't checked lately, but years ago all Swiss nuclear plant fuel was manufacture in England and Fuel Reprocessing was done by Russia.
I'm not even sure the Swiss have a native production capacity and I believe they only have 4 power plants of their own.
By 
Patrick Wahl, at
Mon Nov 19, 02:32:00 AM:
I think that all Iranian proposals that appear to go towards meeting the west's demands for them to stop uranium enrichment are exclusively done as stall tactics while they continue toward their goal of producing a bomb or two.
By , at
Mon Nov 19, 04:05:00 AM:
It's a stall tactic. An easy way to keep track in the future of all "breakthroughs" and "grand bargains" is to check and see if Iran also agrees to deal such-and-such AND verifiably agrees to stop domestic enrichment. Verifiably is the operative word, and there is no way that this regime will allow the necessary UN/IAEA measures (i.e eyes on the ground) to get a toehold in the country.
