Thaindian News

Madrid, May 18 (DPA) France Tuesday took a cautious stance towards the nuclear swap deal reached by Brazil and Turkey with Iran, while Turkey urged the international community to back the agreement and to shun sanctions.
The agreement represented a “positive” effort, but it was necessary to wait until Tehran sent a detailed account of it to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), French President Nicolas Sarkozy told his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The two leaders met during a European Union-Latin America summit in Madrid, one day after Iran announced it had agreed to a deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil.

Under the deal, Iran would ship its enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for nuclear material for a research reactor.

The dispute concerning Iran’s nuclear programme “went beyond” the deal, French government sources quoted Sarkozy as saying.

France would study Iran’s account of the agreement with the other members of the UN Security Council and with Germany, Sarkozy said.

Lula da Silva told the French president he had wanted to give “a bit more time” to talks with Iran before the international community imposed sanctions on Tehran.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan meanwhile described the agreement as a “unique opportunity” and a “road map,” adding that sanctions “never brought any results.”

“We must stop talking about sanctions,” said Erdogan, who had been invited to the summit as a country aspiring to join the EU.

The five permanent council members lacked “credibility” in asking another country not to have nuclear weapons, because they had such weapons themselves, Erdogan said earlier in Madrid.