Sunday, 15 November 2009
By Nermin SERA and the News Agencies
Turkey and the UN's nuclear watchdog have confirmed they are discussing a proposal to allow Iran to store some of its enriched uranium in Turkey.
Turkey's energy minister said he would be willing to accept low-enriched uranium from Iran for temporary storage, responding to a proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday.
"There is no problem from the side of Turkey with Iran storing its low-grade uranium in Turkey. We cannot say no," Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told reporters.
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that the US administration had told Iran that it is willing to allow the country to send its uranium stockpile to any of several nations, including Turkey, for safekeeping.
Turkey has no nuclear programme of its own and repeated attempts to build one have been still-born. But the IAEA says the enriched uranium produced by Iran - the source of so much anxiety over potential nuclear weapons - is actually quite simple to handle. Turkey could quickly build such a facility and all that would be required would be IAEA monitoring of the stock.
If this deal takes off, Turkey will already have proved the worth of its policy of "zero problems" with its neighbours. It would also help quiet those critics who believe that Turkey's shift eastwards must inevitably mean a loss for the West.
