Iran in new proposal game to buy time

Tehran: Iran on Friday failed to accept a UN-drafted plan for it to cut a stockpile of nuclear fuel that the West fears could be used for weapons, instead calling for responses to its own proposal.

The deal, proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has already been approved by the other parties — the US, Russia and France.

By offering its own proposal, of which no details were available, Iran appeared to be following a well-tested strategy of buying time to avert a threatened tightening of international sanctions.

"Now we are awaiting a positive and constructive response on Iran's proposal from the other party on providing nuclear fuel for Tehran's reactor," Iranian state television quoted a member of Iran's negotiating team, who attended nuclear talks in Vienna this week, as saying.

"The other party is expected to avoid past mistakes in violating agreements ... and to gain Iran's trust," the unnamed official said.

Western diplomats said the IAEA plan would require Tehran to send 1.2 tonnes of its known 1.5-tonne stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France by the end of the year.

There it would be further enriched, in a way that would make it hard to use for warheads, and returned to Iran for use in a Tehran reactor that makes radioactive medical isotopes.

The deal would test Iran's stated intention to use enriched uranium only for peaceful energy.

It would also buy time for broader talks on world powers' ultimate goal: that Iran allay fears that it has a secret nuclear weapons programme by curbing enrichment, in return for trade and technology benefits.

Diplomats said the US and France had confirmed their acceptance of the draft accord in notes sent to the IAEA.

Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added: "We agree with these proposals and we are counting on not only Iran but all the other participants of the negotiations to confirm their readiness to implement the proposed scheme."

The deal would cut Iran's LEU stockpile below the threshold that could yield enough fissile material for one nuclear weapon if it were refined to 90 per cent purity.