Western anger as Iran changes its mind on uranium enrichment deal

Published on Thursday 29 October 2009 21:06

IRAN proposed changes to a UN-drafted nuclear fuel deal yesterday, making demands that appeared to challenge the basis of the agreement with the United States, France and Russia.

The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which had requested a reply by last Friday, said its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, had now received an initial response from Tehran.

"(Mr ElBaradei] is engaged in consultations with the government of Iran as well as all relevant parties, with the hope that agreement on his proposal can be reached soon," the IAEA said.

The Iranian pro-government daily newspaper Javan reported that Iran wanted shipments of low-enriched uranium (LEU) – for conversion abroad into fuel for a Tehran research reactor – to take place in stages, not in a single consignment.

It also wanted simultaneous imports of higher-enriched fuel from other countries for the same plant.

The conditions were likely non-starters for western powers, which suspect the Islamic Republic of seeking nuclear arms capability. Tehran says its programme is only for electricity.

"If the Iranian position is as described, it gets the IAEA nowhere," a western diplomat in Vienna said. "They are undercutting Mohamed ElBaradei, who is seeking to help them demonstrate the peaceful intent of their nuclear programme."

Under Mr ElBaradei's plan, Tehran would transfer about 75 per cent of its known 1.5 tonnes of LEU in one shipment to Russia by the end of this year for further enrichment. The material would then go to France to be converted into fuel plates.

These would be returned to Tehran to power the US-built reactor, which produces radio-isotopes for cancer treatment.

The US role would be to upgrade safety and instrumentation at the plant, Iranian officials said.

Iran's request for nuclear fuel imports is problematic because UN sanctions ban trade in such materials with Tehran.

Western diplomats said Iran risks rekindling demands for harsher sanctions unless it acts on the fuel plan and other nuclear transparency measures before the end of the year.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated that his country would not retreat "one iota" on its right to a nuclear programme and suggested it was gaining ground in the dispute.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged Iranian authorities to overturn a "harsh" four-year sentence reportedly handed down to a British embassy employee for spying.

Hossein Rassam, an Iranian who worked as the embassy's chief political analyst, was arrested in June as the authorities in Tehran clamped down on massive street protests following the disputed presidential election.

His arrest came as relations between Britain and Iran plunged to a new low, with Tehran accusing the UK of fomenting opposition demonstrations.

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