“If a guarantee is provided to supply the 20 percent [enriched] fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, our officials are ready to enter talks about 20 percent enrichment,” Ramin Mehmanparast said at a conference in Kazakhstan on Friday.
But he added that Tehran reserves the right to continue its own enrichment program, Press TV reported on Saturday.
A new deal for Iran is in the works with the five permanent Security Council members – Russia, the United States, Britain, China and France – and Germany, offering easing of economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for caps on uranium enrichment in the country, The Guardian said earlier.
The deal may be put on the table after the presidential elections in the United States on Nov. 6, the report said.
Economic sanctions hindering Iranian oil exports have caused an almost 40-percent devaluation of the Iranian rial in recent weeks, which even prompted street protests by local small merchants, the bazaari, normally the core constituency of the ruling Islamic regime.