Brazil is ending its efforts to broker a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme, a report said on Monday, in a move that leaves Turkey alone.
With the agreement signed by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motaki and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, Iran committed to give the 1200kg of 3.5% enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for 20% enriched uranium it will receive from Western countries to be used as fuel in the nuclear research reactor in Tehran.
Tehran will receive the enriched uranium from the Vienna Group, comprising of the U.S., France, Russia and International Atomic Energy Agency, in Turkey.
But, Celso Amorim, Brazil’s foreign minister, told the Financial Times that the country would no longer seek to settle the dispute after the US rejected a Turkish-Brazilian deal with Iran to exchange half Tehran’s stockpile of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel for a research reactor.
“We got our fingers burned by doing things that everybody said were helpful and in the end we found that some people could not take ‘yes’ for an answer,” Amorim said in a clear reference to Washington.
“If we are required , maybe we can still be useful . . . But we are not going out in a proactive way again unless we are required to.”
The 15-nation Security Council passed a resolution on new sanctions on Iran. The resolution was approved with 12 ‘yes’ votes, two ‘no’ votes from Brazil and Turkey, and one abstention from Lebanon.
UN vote came despite Turkey-Brazil efforts that yielded the nuclear swap deal with Iran.
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