Official: West must earn back Iran's trust

TEHRAN, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Iran will be ready for a nuclear fuel swap only when Western countries earn back Iranian trust, Iran's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Iran lost trust with Western countries, so they must work to win it back before any fuel exchange could occur, the government-backed Press TV reported Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast as saying.

"Because of the attitude of some Western countries, we have lost trust in them," Mehman-Parast said. "They have never kept their promises. Naturally we cannot so easily trust them, (but) if they can provide conditions in which they can win our trust then we will be ready to exchange fuel."

A proposal offered by the International Atomic Energy Agency in October would have Iran shipping most of its low-enriched uranium to a third-party country for further enrichment and returned to Iran for the Tehran medical research reactor. Among the changes Tehran sought to the draft agreement was to allow the exchange to occur inside Iran, creating an impasse.

The ministry spokesman said any more U.N. sanctions would be fruitless, adding that officials were considering only minimally complying with IAEA if necessary.

"If our rights … are not restored then we won't have to undertake any more measures beyond our commitments with the (IAEA)," Press TV quoted Mehman-Parast as saying. "We have made maximum commitment. We'll do the minimal commitments that we are required to."