NEW DELHI: The growing policy rift between India and the US on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear enrichment plans has come out in the open with foreign minister S M Krishna disagreeing with the American position to welcome Tehran’s decision to send its low enriched uranium stock to Turkey.
“That Iran has agreed to send enriched uranium to Turkey, is, I think, a constructive move,” the foreign minister told TOI.
Krishna was replying to a question on US’s plans to rope in other members of the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran despite the swap deal under which Iran will send 2,640 pounds of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey within one month and, in turn, receive fuel rods for a medical research reactor.
US along with several European nations have taken a dim view of the swap deal facilitated by Brazil and Turkey, suspecting that it was just a manoeuvre to derail the push for Security Council sanctions against Iran.
The swap deal is similar to the offer US and other countries had put on the table in October.
US and others say that that the original swap deal, that Iran accepted only to reject it later, required Tehran to send out 2,640 pounds — 80% of its stock — of enriched uranium, and start serious negotiations which could have delayed its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Now, 2,640 pounds amount to just about half of Iran’s stock.
