Iran Undermines Obama’s Sanctions Warning as UN Experts Visit Qom Plant

UN experts will visit a uranium enrichment plant south of Tehran on Thursday, as US President Barack Obama warned of “consequences” after Iran dismissed a UN-brokered nuclear fuel deal.
The visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team to the plant, which is being built inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom, was announced on Wednesday by Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh.
“It is a routine visit,” a source close to Iran’s nuclear body told AFP about the inspection, which is the second by the IAEA in less than a month.
Four inspectors first visited the plant on October 25 after its disclosure by Iran to the agency triggered intense outrage in the West.
“This site will from now on be under the IAEA. And for your information there will be another inspection tomorrow of this site in order to make sure that we are fully cooperating,” Soltanieh told reporters in Vienna on Wednesday.

Iranian officials say the construction of the plant is a message to the West that Tehran will never give up its uranium enrichment work and that the plant is a back-up facility in case the main enrichment plant at Natanz is bombed.

Soltanieh has said that Iran has no other enrichment plants apart from Fordo (in Qom) and Natanz. The UN inspection comes a day after Iran rejected plans for it to send more than 70 percent of its stocks of low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad under the IAEA-brokered deal. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday that Iran is however ready for more talks with world powers on the issue and is prepared to consider the idea of a simultaneous exchange of uranium for fuel for a Tehran reactor.

IRAN OFFERS DIALOGUE BUT NO CONCESSIONS ON NUCLEAR DEAL

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking to reporters at the end of an overnight visit to the Philippines, also dismissed the prospects of more sanctions even as US President Barack Obama warned of the “consequences” of Tehran’s stance.
He said Iran had broached to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei the idea of a simultaneous exchange of uranium for fuel, instead of the Western proposal that Iran export more than 70 percent of its stocks before receiving any nuclear fuel in return.
“We raised to Mr ElBaradei of the IAEA and the other sides the suggestion regarding the swap of the fuel, and within that framework we reviewed the swapping and exchanging of that fuel within the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the form of a straight swap,” Mottaki said.
“If they insist on this suggestion we could discuss and work within the framework.”

Shortly after the foreign minister’s comments in Manila, Obama, who is visiting South Korea, declared that Washington and its partners were now discussing “consequences” in the form of toughened sanctions on Iran.

“Sanctions was the literature of the ’60s and the ’70s,” Mottaki retorted when asked about the prospect of more sanctions.
“Well, in the last four years they have the experience of doing so. And I think they are wise enough not to repeat failed experiences. Of course it’s totally up to them.”

Notes/Sources:
1.Al Manar,Lebanese News Media