Iran and EU salvage nuclear deal - diplomats

Iran and EU negotiators have apparently salvaged a deal committing Tehran to freezing all parts of a programme that can make nuclear-weapons grade uranium, diplomats said tonight.

One of the diplomats said the compromise would mean Iran giving up its insistence that 20 centrifuges be exempted from a total freeze of all uranium enrichment activities.

But instead of accepting seals from the International Atomic Energy Agency on the equipment, the centrifuges would be monitored for inactivity by IAEA cameras, said the diplomat.

Other diplomats said details still had to be finalised before the agreement was formally announced, but confirmed the essence of the deal.

Iran’s interpretation of its deal with the EU to freeze all activities linked to uranium enrichment – which can produce both nuclear fuel and the material for the core of atomic warheads – had led to fears that the agreement would be scuttled.

Iran had continued to demand that it be allowed to operate 20 centrifuges - although the EU says the deal mandates a suspension of all activities related to enrichment, including running the centrifuges, which spin gas into fuel-level or weapons-grade uranium.

The Europeans say the deal committed Iran to full suspension of enrichment and all related activities while the two sides discuss a pact meant to provide Iran with EU technical and economic aid and other concessions.

The proposed deal also commits Iran to a pledge not to reprocess plutonium - which it would be able to do in several years’ time, once it completes work on a heavy water reactor in the city of Arak.

With the EU deal envisaging a light-water reactor for Iran – from which extraction of weapons-grade nuclear material is difficult – diplomats said the Europeans hoped Iran would not complete its heavy water facility.