Iran would not agree in multilateral talks this week to ship a portion of its low-enriched uranium stockpile to other countries for further refinement, but would instead seek to purchase more highly enriched material from abroad for use in a Tehran research reactor, state media quoted anonymous officials as saying (see GSN, Oct. 16).
(Oct. 19) -
Delegates from Iran, France, Russia and the United States meet for talks today at the International Atomic Energy Agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Iran has suggested it would not abide by a previous agreement to ship much of its low-enriched uranium abroad (Samuel Kubani/Getty Images).
If Iran balks at the understanding, reached earlier this month in talks with the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations and Germany, the nation could eliminate the possibility of a compromise with Western powers aimed at creating additional time for negotiations over its disputed nuclear activities, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Oct. 2). The United States and its allies have for years expressed concern that Iran's uranium enrichment program could produce nuclear-weapon material; Iran insists the effort is strictly peaceful in nature.
Still, Iran had not formally ruled out such an agreement ahead of today's meeting with delegates from France, Russia and the United States, said a high-level Western diplomat in Vienna connected to the negotiations (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Oct. 19).
Iran today reaffirmed its intention to enrich its uranium to the level required for the research reactor if other powers refuse to supply the material, Reuters reported (see GSN, Oct. 13).
"If the talks do not bring about Iran's desired result ... we will start to make 19.7 enriched uranium ourselves," Iranian Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Ali Sharisdian said. Uranium must have an enrichment level around 90 percent to be usable in a nuclear bomb (Parisa Hafezi, Reuters I, Oct. 19).
The two-day talks were "off to a good start," said International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei. "We have had a constructive meeting. Most technical issues have been discussed. We will continue the meeting at 10 a.m. tomorrow" (Mark Heinrich, Reuters II, Oct. 19).
“By the end of these next two days,” a high-level U.S. official in Washington told the New York Times, “we’ll know if the Iranians are serious and whether we have time” to maintain the diplomatic focus on Iran's nuclear activities without worrying that Tehran is furthering nuclear-weapon efforts (David Sanger, New York Times, Oct. 19).
Iran indicated it could eventually seek uranium with a 63 percent enrichment level, Agence France-Presse reported.
“The current proposal is for enrichment to be done on our territory while only enrichment above 5 percent, in particular for the research reactor in Tehran, will be done in another country,” state media quoted Abolfazl Zohrehvand, a staffer for Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, as saying.
"The importance of this is that Iran will retain the techniques and technology of enrichment ... and we will keep our sites and research [center].
“It is possible that in certain circumstances we will need uranium enriched to 63 percent, which we will buy under the supervision of the [International Atomic Energy Agency] or indeed we will do the enriching ourselves,” he said (Jay Deshmukh, Agence France-Presse/Daily Star, Oct. 19).
This month's tentative uranium transfer agreement resulted from a secret, four-month negotiation process that received direct input in three instances from U.S. President Barack Obama, Time magazine reported today.
When Iran informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog in June that it was low on fuel for the Tehran research reactor, the Obama administration suggested that Russia enrich Iran's low-enriched material to the level required for use at the facility. France would then use the material to produce plates for the reactor that could not be converted to weapon material.
Obama last month informed ElBaradei of the potential arrangement, and Tehran later told ElBaradei that it could accept the deal (Massimo Calabresi, Time, Oct. 19).
ElBaradei on Saturday urged Iran and the United States to purse bilateral nuclear discussions, Reuters reported.
"Of course you can impose further sanctions. But I consider it rather unlikely that new sanctions will make Iran come around," he said. "President Barack Obama has understood that talks with Iran are the only possible solution. If you want to make progress, you have to start talks without preconditions."
He also expressed support for the potential uranium transfer agreement: "With this first step to build trust we could make an important contribution to defuse the crisis" (Boris Groendahl, Reuters III, Oct. 17).