国际英语新闻：Iran FM urges acceptance of uranium swap agreement

BRUSSELS, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Wednesday urged the international community to accept an enriched uranium swap agreement between Iran, Turkey and Brazil.

Iran would either cooperate provided that the international community accepts the agreement, or wage confrontation should new sanctions be adopted, Mottaki told a press conference in the Iranian embassy in Brussels.

"We prefer the first option but it's up to them to decide which one they want," he said.

The exchange agreement signed on May 17 in Teheran allows Iran to transfer 1,200 kg of its 3.5-percent enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for 120 kg of 20-percent enriched uranium needed for the Teheran research reactor.

Mottaki reaffirmed that Iran's nuclear program has no hidden military purposes, but the international community does not believe so and has already inflicted various sanctions on Iran.

After his encounter with the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament on Tuesday, Mottaki said he was ready for a meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

At the beginning of the press conference, Mottaki strongly condemned the Israeli military attack on a convoy of international aid ships to the Gaza Strip on Monday that killed at least nine people and injured dozens more.