WarSclerotic

The Iranian parliament has denied statements made by its speaker on Wednesday that Iran has “surplus” uranium, according to a BBC report.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani reportedly told The Associated Press that Iran has more enriched uranium than it needs for its research, and would be willing to discuss the “surplus” with Western negotiators.

Unidentified Iranian MPs, however, said the claims were “false and fundamentally inaccurate,” the BBC report said.

The official Iranian Republic News Agency said the parliamentary spokesman’s office had released a statement saying that the parts of the AP interview with Larijani in which he “asserted” that Iran had ample enriched uranium, enough to use as a bargaining chip with the West, were “incorrect and completely baseless.”

A key concession sought by Western powers in negotiations is for Iran to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent. Larijani said Iran produced the enriched uranium itself because the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency would not provide it, and insisted it needed the material only for research and isotopes for medical treatments, not for nuclear weapons.

He said Iran was open to discussions about what to do with the 20% enriched uranium that it does not need. Iran has reported to the IAEA that it has turned half of its 20% enriched uranium into a powder form that cannot easily be used to make weapons-grade fuel.

“We have some surplus, you know, the amount that we don’t need. But over that we can have some discussions,” Larijani told AP. He spoke in Farsi, with an interpreter translating to English.

“Through the process of negotiations, yes, things can be said and they can discuss this matter,” Larijani said, speaking of next week’s planned talks with the P5+1 powers — the U.S., U.K., Russia, China and France, plus Germany.