U.S. senators accuse Iran of cheating on uranium exchanging deal

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian foreign minister is "dishonest" by saying they are close to reach a deal of transferring uranium aboard, and the United States is ready to impose sanctions on the country, leading U.S. senators Joseph Lieberman and John Kerry said Saturday at Munich Security Conference.

"Iran comes to the international conference like this and talks in a way that is simply dishonest," Lieberman, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, told reporters at a press conference on the sidelines of the meeting.

"Dialogues have being going on for last six years, (and) there are always dialogues," he said. "But the Iranians do not take the chance. I think it simply has to get a tougher economic sanction if any kind of diplomacy is over, and military will never be necessary."

"We are united in the congress, senate house, the administration and with our allies here in Europe," said Kerry, the former U.S. presidential candidate, who now heads the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. "Iran has the right under NPT (Non- Proliferation Treaty) to enrich (for peaceful use), but they have the (same) right with responsibilities that they cannot live up to. "

"It is unacceptable for Iran to develop nuclear weapon capacity, " he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said late Friday at the conference that a deal on exchanging some of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) for higher-grade fuel with other countries could be reached in a "not too distant future."

On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he was willing to clinch a deal over the transfer of his nation's uranium, a UN proposal that Tehran had ruled out for months.

Western countries are suspicious about Iran's real willingness, saying that it was just the country's attempt of buying time in the face of the possible sanctions.