Turkey and Brazil have taken the opportunity as non permanent members of UN Security Council (UNSC) to try to bridge the gap between Iran and the West although the US has vowed to continue to seek more sanctions against Tehran.

Reuters reported the United States handed the UN Security Council a draft resolution on Tuesday that would expand UN sanctions against Iran — a move that would run counter to the new swap proposals which were an attempt to head off more sanctions.

The US officials regard the new swap deal as a maneuver by Iran to delay more UN sanctions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Wednesday Jakarta welcomed the new swap deal promoted by Turkey and Brazil as an effort to address the lack of trust between Iran and the West after negotiations between both sides  ended in deadlock.

Iran has previously refused to agree similar proposals by the five veto wielding countries (P5) to send its uranium to be processed in Russia or France.

But under the new swap deal with the two non permanent member of UNSC, Iran will send its uranium to Turkey in return for fuel rods for a medical research reactor.

“[The swap deal] is an initial step that we welcome...as an effort to build confidence because a trust deficit has led to [deadlock in the Iranian nuclear talks],” said Faizasyah.

When Indonesia sat as a non permanent member to the UNSC in 2007-2008, Jakarta also sought to play a role in the Iranian nuclear problem but this did not result in any progress until the UNSC passed two new resolutions against Tehran.

Jakarta voted in favor of the 2007 resolution and abstained in 2008.

Faizasyah said the success of the deal between Iran, Turkey and Brazil was owing to the readiness of the three countries to be practical and to accept the results of the talks.

He said Jakarta had also played an important role in securing the mechanism for dealing with nuclear material supplies when sitting as a non permanent member of UNSC.

The executive director of the Centre for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) Rizal Sukma said Turkey had a better chance to play the role of mediator between Iran and the West because Turkey was a Western ally and NATO member , as well as a neighbor of Iran.

“Jakarta said it remained ready to play a role to help solve these problems but has not followed up with concrete plans. This latest move made by Brazil, to team up with Turkey, showed that it came up with concrete actions to play a practical role in the negotiations,” Rizal said.  

Although the US remained unconvinced by the new swap deal between Brazil, Turkey and Iran, experts said the move by Turkey and Brazil would put pressure on the Western countries whose domination of the dialogue with Tehran has resulted in weary responses from developing countries.

Jakarta has also called more developing countries to play a greater role in the Iranian nuclear issue.

The swap deal between Iran and Brazil and Turkey was agreed on Monday while the UN was holding a five yearly review of the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In the NPT review, Indonesia as a coordinator of the 118 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries voiced the concern that non-proliferation issues should not gain more attention than disarmament issues.

Developing countries as well as members of the Non Aligned Movement have reiterated the right of all signatories to the NPT, including Iran, to develop nuclear technology for civilian use and have called upon the US ally and nuclear-weapon-armed state of Israel to join the NPT.

The new draft sanctions against Iranian nuclear development will be voted on in June in a ballot that will see Brazil and Turkey taking part as non permanent member of UNSC.

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