Iran fails to endorse UN nuclear fuel deal

IRAN yesterday failed to accept a UN-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 research reactor.

The response will come as a disappointment to the US, Russia and France, which yesterday endorsed the UN plan 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 yesterday.

Iranian opposition to the UN 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 US, which suspects Iran is using its nuclear programme as a way to covertly develop weapons — an allegation denied by Tehran.

An unnamed member of Iran’s negotiating team urged world powers to “refrain from past mistakes in violating agreements and make efforts to win the trust of the Iranian nation”, according to state TV. US 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 US adversaries. But he has also threatened harsher sanctions if Iran does not co-operate to ease fears about the nature of itsnuclear programme.

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

The draft UN agreement was formalised on Wednesday after three days of discussions inVienna. The talks followed a similar meeting at the beginning of October in Geneva that included the highest-level bilateral contact between the US and Iran in years. Iran’s rejection of the deal would come as a disappointment to the US, Russia and France and could make the threat of further sanctions more likely.