Iran wants big amendments of nuclear deal

The European Union's foreign policy chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Tuesday there was no need to rework the U.N. draft as Iran wants big changes within the framework of a U.N. nuclear fuel deal. Tehran says it broadly accepts, a move that could unravel the plan and expose Tehran to the threat of harsher sanctions.

According to a report of the Reuters, ElBaradei said he and France's foreign minister suggested Tehran would expose itself to tougher international sanctions if tried to undo the plan.

Iran's state television Al Alam said, among the central planks of the plan opposed by Iran -- but requested by the West to cut the risk of an Iranian atom bomb -- was for it to send most of its low-enriched uranium reserve abroad for processing all in one go, .

Iran says it is enriching uranium only for nuclear power plant fuel, not for weaponry. But its history of nuclear secrecy and continued restrictions on U.N. inspections have raised Western suspicions of a covert bomb agenda.

Citing an unnamed official, the Arabic-language satellite television station said on Tuesday Iran would present its response to the proposed agreement within 48 hours, a week after a deadline set by its author, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Al Alam said Iran would "agree to the general framework of the draft proposal but will request some important amendments."

But senior lawmakers have said Iran should import foreign fuel rather than send abroad by the end of this year much of its own low-enriched uranium (LEU) stock -- its crucial strategic asset in talks with world powers -- as the proposal calls for.

Iran's foreign minister said on Monday it may want to do both under the deal, hinting Tehran could ship out much less LEU than the amount big powers want to delay by at least a year the possibility of Iran "weaponizing" enriched uranium.

The draft pact calls for Iran to transfer around 75 percent of its known 1.5 tons of LEU 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 a research reactor that produces radio-isotopes for cancer treatment.

Iran fails to accept UN uranium enrichment plan

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran on Friday failed to accept a U.N.-drafted plan that would ship most of the country's uranium abroad for enrichment, saying instead it would prefer to buy the nuclear fuel

it needs for a reactor that makes medical isotopes.

The response will come as a disappointment to the U.S., Russia and France, which endorsed the U.N. plan Friday they drafted in discussions with Iran earlier in the week. The agreement was meant to ease Western fears about Iran's potential to make a nuclear weapon.

While Iran did not reject the plan outright, state TV said that Tehran was waiting for a response to its own proposal to buy nuclear fuel rather than ship low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment. Iran has often used counterproposals as a way to draw out nuclear negotiations with the West.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is waiting for a constructive and confidence building response to the clear proposal of buying fuel for the Tehran research reactor," state TV quoted an unnamed source close to Iran's negotiating team as saying Friday.

Iranian opposition to the U.N. plan could be driven by concerns that it weakens Iran's control over its stockpiles of nuclear fuel and could be perceived as a concession to the U.S., which suspects Iran is using its nuclear program as a way to covertly develop weapons — an allegation denied by Tehran.

An unnamed member of Iran's negotiating team urged world powers Friday to "refrain from past mistakes in violating agreements and make efforts to win the trust of the Iranian nation," according to state TV.

President Barack Obama has stepped up diplomatic engagement with Iran since he took office in January and has faulted the Bush administration for refusing to talk to U.S. adversaries. But he has also threatened harsher sanctions if Iran does not cooperate to ease fears about the nature of its nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council has already passed three sets of sanctions against Iran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment, but the U.S. faces a serious challenge in convincing Russia and China to go even further because of their close ties to Tehran.

The draft U.N. agreement was formalized Wednesday after three days of discussions in Vienna. The talks followed a similar meeting at the beginning of October in Geneva that included the highest-level bilateral contact between the U.S. and Iran in years.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said after the completion of the Vienna talks that he hoped Iran and its three interlocutors — the U.S., Russia and France — would approve the plan by Friday.

The three countries heeded his call Friday before Iran announced its preference to buy the 20 percent-enriched uranium it needs for its Tehran reactor, which has been producing medical isotopes for the past few decades.

International concerns about Iran's nuclear program spiked in September when it was revealed the country was constructing a previously undisclosed uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom.

Iran subsequently agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to visit the facility, and the official Islamic Republic News Agency said Friday that representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency would arrive Saturday to start the inspection.