Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei awaits the start of a meeting of delegates from Iran, the U.S. Russia and France, on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009, at Vienna's International Center. The talks between the nations focus on a technical issue with huge strategic ramifications, whether Iran will farm out some of its uranium enrichment program to a foreign country.
Deputy Secretary of Energy from the U.S. Daniel B. Poneman waits for the start of a meeting of delegates from Iran, the U.S. Russia and France, on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009, at Vienna's International Center. The talks between the nations focus on a technical issue with huge strategic ramifications, whether Iran is ready to farm out some of its uranium enrichment program to a foreign country.
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, front, arrives for a meeting of delegates from Iran, the U.S. Russia and France, on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009, at Vienna's International Center. The talks between the nations focus on a technical issue with huge strategic ramifications, whether Iran is ready to farm out some of its uranium enrichment program to a foreign country. Others are not identified.
Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, front arrives for a meeting of delegates from Iran, the U.S. Russia and France, on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009, at Vienna's International Center. The talks between the nations focus on a technical issue with huge strategic ramifications, whether Iran will farm out some of its uranium enrichment program to a foreign country. Others are not identified.
Overview of a meeting of delegates from Iran, the U.S. Russia and France, on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009, at Vienna's International Center. The talks between the nations focus on a technical issue with huge strategic ramifications, whether Iran will farm out some of its uranium enrichment program to a foreign country.
Deputy Secretary of Energy from the U.S. Daniel B. Poneman, left, and Glyn Davies, U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, wait for the start of a meeting of delegates from Iran, the U.S. Russia and France, on Monday, Oct. 19, 2009, at Vienna's International Center. The talks between the nations focus on a technical issue with huge strategic ramifications, whether Iran is ready to farm out some of its uranium enrichment program to a foreign country. Others are not identified.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has agreed to a draft deal on its nuclear program.
In addition, diplomats say the deal would see the country ship out most of its enriched uranium to Russia, stripping Tehran of most of the material it would need to make a nuclear weapon.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Wednesday that Iran and the U.S., Russia and France have signed off on a draft deal that he hoped would be approved by the nations' capitals by Friday.
He gave no details. But a diplomat inside the closed meeting told The Associated Press that the draft foresees the export most of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium.
Iran says it is enriching to provide fuel for a future network of nuclear reactors. But enriched uranium can also be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads.
Negotiators from three powers and Iran are meeting for a third day in an attempt to persuade Tehran to ship most of its enriched uranium abroad.
An agreement would delay Tehran's potential ability to make a nuclear weapon because enriched uranium can be used for the fissile core of nuclear weapons. Tehran says it is enriching only to make fuel for a planned network of reactors.
The tentative plan envisions Russia enriching the material to a higher grade and then another country turning the uranium into metal fuel rods for Tehran's research reactor.
Iran's interlocutors are the U.S., Russia and France. The talks, which resumed Wednesday, opened Monday and have been repeatedly delayed as the two sides search for agreement.
"We have had very constructive discussions, intensive discussions," Iran's envoy to the atomic energy agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said after the meeting, according to news agencies. "There have been proposals. We had thorough discussions on these issues. We have to thoroughly study this text and have further elaboration in capitals and will come back and reflect."Iran's drive to master nuclear technology has worried the West and Israel, the Middle East's sole atomic power. Physicists say Iran has produced more than enough reactor-grade nuclear material to convert into a single bomb if it were to withdraw from the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, expel inspectors and begin further refining its supply.
The revelation of a secret uranium enrichment facility in Qum last month added to suspicions that Iran has created an undeclared parallel nuclear program beyond the eyes of international inspectors.
Under the terms of the deal sketched out before this week's meeting, Iran would send up to 80% of its supply of low-enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be further refined, and France, where it would be turned into plates for use in a medical research reactor.
Soltanieh said the U.S. played a key role in this week's talks, which officials said focused on hammering out details of the proposal.
"Iran and the United States discussed technical cooperation about procurement of equipment for the Tehran [research] reactor under the aegis of IAEA," he told Iran's Fars news agency. "The U.S. agreed in principle to cooperate" with Iran.
Anonymous officials quoted by Western news agencies said the deal has been hampered by tensions between Iran and France, which has taken an increasingly hard line on the Iranian nuclear issue under conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy's administration.
Soltanieh alluded to such complications, telling Fars that Russia "is the main partner in the deal for fuel supply, and France can cooperate with Russia if it is willing to do so."
By reducing Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium below the threshold for building a bomb, such a deal might temporarily ease pressure on the Obama administration, which has vowed to attempt diplomatic outreach to overcome 30 years of hostility with Iran and forge a deal over the nuclear program.
But if approved, the deal could also buy time for Iran to continue expanding its ability to produce nuclear fuel at its facility in Natanz.
"It's a big risk for Obama because the deal implicitly accepts Iran's right to enrichment," said Mark Fitzpatrick, a nonproliferation specialist and former U.S. diplomat at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies. "And it delays the sanctions that are seen as part of the key to an ultimate solution."
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