Saudi Arabia has urged Iran to allow a daughter of Osama Bin Laden to leave the country

Osama bin Laden

Saudi Arabia has urged Iran to allow a daughter of Osama Bin Laden to leave the country after the Iranians acknowledged she was in Tehran.The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said his government was in talks with Iran over freeing the fugitive al-Qaeda leader’s daughter. Iman Bin Laden, 17, is said to have recently escaped from a compound where she and others were under house arrest. She took refuge in the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Iman and five siblings have been held under house arrest by Iran since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported last month.

The newspaper, which is owned by a cousin of Prince Saud, says the embassy has issued her with a travel permit to allow her to return to Saudi Arabia. It also quoted Zaina Bin Laden, the wife of Bin Laden’s fourth son Omar, as saying that Bin Laden children and Bin Laden’s wife Khayriyah were living in a residential compound on the outskirts of Tehran.

The “Bin Laden children are living in adjacent houses with gardens, they have a laptop but no internet access, and there is a swimming pool in the compound”, Zaina Bin Laden was quoted as saying. Both she and her husband Omar, who live in Qatar, had spoken to one of the children by telephone, the paper said, adding that Zaina hoped to visit Tehran.

‘Humanitarian issue’

Speaking in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Prince Faisal said his country considered the matter to be a “humanitarian issue”. “We are negotiating with the Iranian government on this basis,” he added. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said last week that he had been informed that Bin Laden’s daughter Iman was staying in Tehran.

He said it was “unclear” how she she had got there but she could leave if she obtained the right travel documents. Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have long been marked by rivalry and suspicion, due in part to sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims, analysts say.

Osama Bin Laden, accused of 9/11 and other attacks, was born into a wealthy Saudi family but was expelled from the country in 1991 because of his anti-government activities. Omar Bin Laden was quoted by Asharq al-Awsat as saying his relatives in Tehran had nothing to do with “accusations of terrorism made against” his father.

Iran is warning it will produce nuclear fuel on its own

Manouchehr Mottaki

TEHRAN,  Iran is warning it will produce nuclear fuel on its own if there is no deal to have the West deliver the fuel in exchange for Tehran’s enriched uranium by the end of January.Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told state TV on Saturday the West must “make a decision” whether to accept the Iranian counterproposal to either sell Tehran the fuel or swap it for Iran’s enriched uranium.Mottaki says this is an “ultimatum.”He says the international community “has one month left” to decide – or Tehran will enrich uranium to a higher level, needed for the fuel.Iran dismissed an end of 2009 deadline on a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The deal would have reduced Iran’s capabilities to make nuclear weapons.(AP)

Manochehr Mottaki said :Iran agrees to nuclear fuel swap, with caveats

Manouchehr Mottaki

MANAMA, Bahrain  Iran is ready to exchange the bulk of its stockpile of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods – as proposed by the U.N. – but according to its own mechanisms and timetable, the foreign minister said Saturday.The minister’s remarks come just days before an expected meeting between the U.S. and allies to discuss new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The offer, however, falls far short of the conditions set by the international community.Speaking to reporters at a regional security conference in Bahrain, Manochehr Mottaki said Iran agreed with a U.N. deal proposed in October in which up to 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of its uranium would be exchanged for fuel rods to power its research reactor.

“We accepted the proposal in principle,” he said through a translator. “We suggested in the first phase we give you 400 kilograms of 3.5 percent enriched uranium and you give us the equivalent in 20 percent uranium.”Iran has about 3,300 pounds (1,500 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium and needs to refine to 20 percent to operate a research reactor that produces medical isotopes.

Uranium enriched at low levels can be used as fuel for nuclear energy, but when enriched to 90 percent and above, it can be used as material for a weapon. The United States and five other world powers have been trying to win Iran’s acceptance of a deal under which Tehran would ship most of its low-enriched uranium stockpile abroad to be processed into fuel rods, which can’t be enriched further.

The deal would leave Iran – at least temporarily – without enough enriched uranium to produce a bomb. However, after signaling in October that it would accept the proposal, Iran has since balked, giving mixed signals over the deal, including several statements from lawmakers rejecting it outright.Mottaki maintained, however, that a clear proposal had been given involving the simultaneous exchange of uranium for fuel rods in stages.”We gave a clear answer and we responded and our answer was we accepted in principle but there were differences in the mechanism,” he said, suggesting the exchange take place on Iran’s Kish island, in the Persian Gulf.

It is not clear, however, if the low-enriched uranium would then remain on the island or could be shipped out of the country – a necessary condition to any deal from the standpoint of the international community.The world powers are also unlikely to accept a long drawn out exchange in stages, as it would allow Iran to maintain enough enriched uranium inside the country to possibly build a weapon.Iran, meanwhile, wants to receive the fuel rods immediately in exchange for its uranium for fear that France or Russia could renege deal.

Last month, the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency endorsed a resolution from the six powers – the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – criticizing Iran for defying a U.N. Security Council ban on uranium enrichment and continuing to expand its operations.It also censured Iran for secretly building a second facility and demanded that it immediately suspend further construction.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said last month that the U.N. offer has been “comprehensively rejected” by Iran. A diplomat from one of the six powers said Wednesday that America’s Western allies were waiting for Washington to formally declare the wait for an Iranian response over, probably by the end of this month.The six countries are expected to meet next week to discuss what action to take over Iran.EU leaders said they would support further U.N. sanctions unless Tehran starts cooperating over its nuclear program.