GENEVA, March 30: Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Thursday formally offered to set up a ‘regional consortium’ to enrich fuel for his country’s nuclear programmeme.

Referring to a previous Iranian suggestion on the ‘involvement of foreign companies in the Iranian fuel cycle programmeme’ inside Iran, Mr Mottaki said: “One possibility to resolve the issue could be the establishment of a regional consortium on fuel cycle development.”

Mottaki’s statement, at a conference on disarmament, implied that the consortium would be based in Iran.

He told the permanent conference the centre could involve ‘regional countries which have already developed fuel cycle programmemes at the national level and intend to develop further their programmeme for civilian purposes’.

“Countries outside the region may also participate in such regional arrangements based on the modalities agreed between the parties,” he added.

He did not name any countries or add details.

In recent days Iranian diplomats have indicated that Tehran was offering to set up an international consortium on its territory to deal with enrichment, in an attempt to ward off suspicions about its nuclear intentions.

Russia has called for a clear Iranian response to its offer to enrich Iranian nuclear fuel in Russia in a bid to defuse the standoff. Mr Mottaki slammed the process that brought Iran’s case to the Security Council but did not respond directly to the declaration from the UN.

“I announce in no uncertain terms that reporting Iran’s file to the Security Council is in our view an abuse of international mechanism, and is misguided, legally unwarranted and clearly unacceptable to Iran.”

“This can only be a disservice to law based conduct of international relations and is a concerted attempt to escalate the situation for short sighted political agenda of certain powerful states.”

—AFP