The Islamic Republic of Iran's Ambassador to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali-Asqar Soltanieh has emphasized on the capability of Iranian experts for production of fuel rod.

In a televised interview with US-based CNN News Network, Soltanieh emphasized on Iran's ability to produce fuel rods, while noting that some are uninformed of Iranian scientists' intelligence.

In response to a question from CNN anchorwoman Christian Amanpour about the rate of uranium enrichment Iran intends to conduct, Iran's envoy to IAEA said: In accordance to instructions, I sent an official letter to IAEA about 12 O'clock, Vienna local time, and informed IAEA of our intention to start to enrich uranium up to 20% so that we would produce the fuel needed for Tehran research reactor.

He added that: In this letter I have invited inspectors to be present and to supervise this activity. I also received a thankful letter from IAEA in regard to my letter. Meanwhile, the inspectors, who are in Iran, will supervise the whole activity.

Soltanieh stressed: We were forced to do so, because we can no longer wait. In fact, since I wrote a letter to former IAEA chief, Mohammad ElBaradei, on June 2, we have waited for nine months. In this letter, I said we need for IAEA to act as a mediator for provision of this research reactor's fuel.

He added: We want to produce the fuel needed for Tehran research reactor, which is approximately 116 kgs or 120 kgs. This volume of fuel is the same as the volume we received from Argentina, 20 years ago. Meanwhile, we agreed with the concurrent exchange of fuel. But, this proposal remained unanswered and up to this day we have waited for nine months for a response from the other party.

Soltanieh further reminded: We had a contract with the US on the reactor. This contract was prepared and more than $2m were paid to the US. Meanwhile, following the victory of Islamic Revolution, they refused to deliver fuel and/or to repay the money. So, we should have guarantees about receipt of fuel. For this reason, while we are cooperating with their expectations, we called for a concurrent exchange and this is the maximum concession that we have presented.