Iran Envoy Dismisses Reports of Stopping Uranium Enrichment

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations nuclear agency is dismissing reports he suggested Tehran might consider a stop to uranium enrichment.

In an interview Friday with Iran's privately owned Fars News Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh says his comments about a guaranteed foreign supply of enriched uranium were misunderstood.

Several Western news agencies, including VOA, reported Thursday that Soltanieh said Iran might consider stopping its controversial enrichment if it gets a guaranteed foreign supply.

Fars also reported the comments, though it appears its coverage was based on Western accounts.

Soltanieh said his remarks at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna were only about how, in the past, other nations broke their promises to supply Iran with enriched uranium. He said he rejects "whatever is reflected otherwise."

Iran has ignored U.N. resolutions demanding that it stop uranium enrichment. U.S. and European governments fear that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran denies that and says it wants only to produce low-grade fuel for nuclear energy.

The same enrichment process also could be used to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.