In These New Times

PressTV

20th May, 2010

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has warned the UN Security Council against imposing new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

Lula urged the Security Council to show willingness to negotiate with Tehran in response to the nuclear declaration that was signed in the Iranian capital on Monday.

“It depends on the UN Security Council to sit down with a willingness to negotiate, because if it feels it does not want to negotiate, everything will be put back,” he told a business conference in Madrid on Wednesday.

Lula was commenting on a draft UN resolution introduced by the United States on Tuesday that would slap tough new sanctions on Iran.

The declaration signed on Monday by the foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey, and Brazil commits Iran to deposit 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds) of low-enriched uranium in Turkey that would be exchanged for 120 kilograms of 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor, which produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment.

“The only thing that we wanted was to convince Iran that it must make a commitment with” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “to negotiate and place its uranium in Turkey, and that’s what was agreed,” the Brazilian president said.

The deal “is exactly what the United States wanted to do five months ago,” AFP quoted Lula as saying.