Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Friday that Brazil had lived up to the expectations of the international community to have brokered a nuclear swap deal among Iran, Turkey and Brazil, Xinhua reported.
Under the agreement signed on Monday, Tehran agreed to ship 1,200 kg of its 3.5 percent low-enriched uranium to Turkey for deposit in exchange for 120 kg of 20 percent high-enriched uranium.
"We have done what we are asked to do. Our goal was to make October's agreement possible. We have been urged directly and indirectly, verbally and in writing, to implement the proposal with no margin for manipulation, and this is just what we have done," Amorim said at a press conference in Brasilia.
Amorim emphasized that the agreement would not solve all the problems, but it would build confidence to pave the way for discussing other matters.
"Nobody told us 'look, if you do not stop Iran enriching the uranium to 20 percent, forget about the deal,' nobody has ever said that," Amorim said.
He avoided commenting on a possible scenario if sanctions are applied against Iran, stating that it is necessary to await the letter that Iran must send to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seven days after the declaration was signed as established.
"This was the first topic on the schedule. Then, it is necessary to have a reply from the Vienna Group, saying if they are interested in negotiating, and that is when the process starts. And I believe that it may occur in a proper way," he said.
Amorim said he and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are involved in an ongoing discussion with non-permanent members of the UN Security Council in order to keep them informed about this "complex" issue.
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