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Iran wants big changes to draft atom deal with powers
The conditions were likely non-starters for Western powers which suspect the Islamic Republic is covertly seeking to develop nuclear weapons capability. Tehran rejects the charge, saying it is enriching uranium only for electricity.
Under the draft brokered by the UN nuclear watchdog chief in talks last week with Iran and three big powers, Tehran would transfer about 75 percent of its known 1.5 tons of LEU in one consignment to Russia for further enrichment by the end of this year, then to France for conversion into fuel plates.
These would be returned to Tehran to power the reactor that produces radio-isotopes for cancer treatment. The US role in the deal would entail upgrading safety and instrumentation at the plant, Iranian officials said. But Iran’s proposed amendments were likely to be rebuffed by the powers because they wanted the plan to reduce the stockpile of Iran’s LEU below the threshold needed for conversion into highly-enriched uranium for an atom bomb.
This would buy about a year of time for negotiations on halting enrichment in Iran in exchange for benefits to forge a long-term solution to a standoff over its nuclear ambitions.
The powers will see Iran’s counter-offer as problematic because current UN sanctions ban trade in sensitive nuclear materials, which included enriched uranium, with Tehran. Iran’s view is that such sanctions are illegal and unjust.
Iranian reply
Iran has formally presented its response to the fuel deal to the head of the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA), Iran’s state al Alam television reported on Thursday, giving no details. Iran had missed an Oct. 23 UN deadline for a reply.
World powers have complained of Iranian stalling and obfuscation on proposals meant to defuse a long standoff over its disputed nuclear aspirations.
Iran will risk rekindling demands for harsher sanctions without movement on the fuel plan and other nuclear transparency measures before the end of the year, Western diplomats said. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated on Thursday that Iran would not retreat “one iota” on its right to a sovereign nuclear program. But, “fortunately, conditions have been prepared for international cooperation in the nuclear field,” he said in a speech in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
“We welcome cooperation on nuclear fuel, power plants and technology and we are ready to cooperate.” He did not say whether Iran would accept the deal or demand changes. Iran’s IAEA ambassador, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, declined to say what Iran’s position was other than that it was “positive.”
“We expect that our technical and economic concerns will be taken into consideration when dealing with the modalities of supply of nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor.”
The draft fuel deal was hammered out by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in follow-up talks to an Oct. 1 meeting between Iran and six world powers in Geneva, where Iran also agreed to open a previously secret enrichment site for UN inspections.
Four senior IAEA inspectors returned to Vienna on Thursday after a first visit to the site and the team chief said “we had a good trip” but would not elaborate. Details are likely to come in the IAEA’s next quarterly report on Iran in mid-November.
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