France refuses to take back Iran's 50 tons of natural uranium kept in the European country, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh said, ISNA reported.
"France avoids delivering the uranium to us, although we have asked the French board to do the requirements during the talks," Soltanieh told referring to Vienna discussions on fuel swap for Tehran research reactor.
"Lausanne tribunal in France has approved that the 50 tons uranium belongs to Iran," Soltanieh noted addressing France, "give it either to us or to Russia so that they can use it as fuel for Bushehr nuclear power plant."
He then called for France to give at least 10 tons of the total fuel to Iran so that it can be used for making 100 kg uranium for the 20-percent enriched fuel for Tehran's reactor.
"How can we trust them? They don't deliver us the natural uranium, so how can they provide us with 20-percent enriched uranium. We want the contract to be guaranteed." Soltanieh said.
"The Additional Protocol rises from Iraq and North Korea's discussion," he continued.
"In the NPT conference held in New York, we showed that we have managed to approve the document through consensus which says the Additional Protocol is not considered a legally-binding document. It is voluntary and a great success." Soltanieh noted.
Iranian envoy said that the resolutions of the Security Council lack legal base, as referring to the 1230 article of the UN articles of the association.
Regarding the activities of the Security Council, he said, "the council faces the crisis of legitimacy and it frequently issues resolutions against Iran which lack legal bases. We had argumentations that nobody has ever been able to disapprove them. The council has problems with its own legitimacy and is seeking a way to get out of the crisis."
"Delay in the programs of Bushehr nuclear power plant is mostly due to applying fundamental changes which are time consuming, since Germany used to take over the project. Now Russia wants to keep a good image to keep its cooperation with other countries on building plants. In some cases we had paid extra money to guarantee the security." Soltanieh said.
Iranian nuclear program has caused concern since 2003, when the IAEA became aware of its concealed activity. In late 2003, Iran signed the Additional Protocol to the NPT and voluntarily announced about the suspension of uranium enrichment. However, it returned to this activity. Iran insists that as a party to the NPT it has the full right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The enriched uranium can be used to produce nuclear weapons. However, it is necessary as fuel for atomic power plants. Several countries, including the U.S., are sure that Iran strives to develop nuclear weapons and call for to prevent this development.
In October, 2009, a plan was proposed upon which through the IAEA, Iran had to export LEU (3.5 percent) to Russia for being enriched to nearly 20 percent, and then to France for reprocessing into fuel for the Tehran medical reactor.