Iran ready for one-shot nuke fuel exchange inside country

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TEHRAN, Mar 17 (AFP): Iran offered Tuesday a one-shot nuclear fuel exchange on its own soil, edging closer to the conditions of a plan drawn up by the UN atomic watchdog last year as major powers mulled a new round of sanctions.
Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi revealed the new offer in an interview with hardline daily Jawan, signalling a major change in Tehran's longstanding position on the nuclear fuel plan first drafted last October.
Salehi said Iran is ready to deliver 1,200 kilogrammes (2,640 pounds) of low-enriched uranium (LEU) in one go in return for fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor, but the exchange must be inside the country.
Salehi, who is also a vice president, said Iran had earlier proposed to deliver its LEU only gradually in batches of 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds).
"But this has no technical justification because those who want to produce the (20 per cent enriched) fuel say that this amount has no economic justification," Salehi said.
Meanwhile, Britain, France and Germany asked the European Union (EU) Wednesday to take measures to curb Iran's ability to censor domestic opposition and to jam foreign satellite broadcasts.
In a joint letter to EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, the three countries' foreign ministers called for tighter limits on sales of technology that could be used by Iran for repression and censorship.
The 27-nation EU should "apply strong measures" against Tehran if it blocks satellite transmissions of foreign media such as BBC Persia and Deutsche Welle, which have been regularly jammed over the past three months, they said.