Iran offers US nuke deal
2005-12-11 21:15
Tehran - Iran's foreign ministry on Sunday offered the United States a share in building a new nuclear power plant in an apparent effort to curb US opposition to its controversial atomic programme.
"America can take part in international bidding for the construction of Iran's nuclear power plant if they observe the basic standards and quality," foreign ministry spokesperson Hamid Reza Asefi said in a news conference.
Asefi was apparently talking about a 360-megawatt light water nuclear power plant in southwestern Iran, which the head of the country's top atomic organisation announced plans to build on Saturday.
Iran also wants to produce 2 000 megawatts of electricity by building nuclear power plants with foreign help in southern Iran.
Pressure
It was unclear how the Americans would react to the Iranian proposal, but relations between both countries have been severed since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Washington also imposes unilateral sanctions on Iran, preventing US companies from doing business in Iran.
The United States has also ratcheted up pressure against Iran, accusing it of pursuing a nuclear weapons programme and supporting anti-Israeli militants.
Iran, which denies wanting to build atomic bombs, flexed its muscles on Sunday by commissioning a new submarine at the end of three-day military manoeuvres in southern Iran.
The submarine, named Ghadir, is Iran's second homemade submarine and can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously, state-run radio reported.
Iran has been involved in stalled talks with European negotiators over its contentious nuclear programme aimed at making Tehran permanently freeze nuclear enrichment.
Enrichment can produce material for use in warheads or fuel for nuclear plants to generate electricity.
'Serious' meeting
The United States backs the Iran-Europe talks, which broke off in August and will resume on December 21 in Vienna, Austria.
Tehran has since restarted uranium conversion, a precursor to enrichment.
"The (Vienna) meeting will be a serious one," Asefi said.
"Everything is dependent on the meeting and the talks. Everything will be decided there."
He reiterated that the meeting's agenda would focus on Iran's right to enrich uranium and that the talks would be held on a senior level.
Germany, France and Britain have suggested shifting Iran's enrichment activities to Russia, where nuclear material would be enriched only to fuel levels and not to weapons grade.
But Iran said it would enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel domestically despite international efforts to curb its atomic programme.
Iran is standing its ground amid international pressure to cut back on its nuclear activities, particularly uranium enrichment, which can produce material for use in warheads or fuel for nuclear plants to generate electricity.
- AP