Iran responds to IAEA uranium deal

The UN atomic watchdog said yesterday it had received an "initial" response from Iran to an UN-brokered plan to supply nuclear fuel to a research reactor in Tehran.
International Atomic Energy Agency "Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has received an initial response from the Iranian authorities to his proposal to use Iran's low-enriched uranium for manufacturing fuel for the continued operation of the Tehran Research Reactor, which is devoted mainly to producing radioisotopes for medical purposes," the watchdog said in a statement.
"The Director General is engaged in consultations with the government of Iran as well as all relevant parties, with the hope that agreement on his proposal can be reached soon."
Iran will propose two amendments to an UN-drafted deal under which most of Tehran's low-enriched uranium will be sent abroad for conversion into nuclear fuel, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Firstly, Iran will offer its stock of LEU "gradually" in several batches rather than sending out the full 75 percent in one go, the newspaper said quoting an unnamed informed source.
Secondly, Iran wants to receive highly enriched uranium fuel at the same time as it hands over its LEU stock "as per a formula to be calculated by the IAEA based on the need of the Tehran reactor."
Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on yesterday that conditions were now ripe for a deal on Iran's nuclear programme as a result of a change in Western policy from "confrontation to cooperation."
Iranian media said the government was likely to seek some changes to the proposalsfrom the International Atomic Energy Agency and its envoy to the watchdog said he expected to be involved in further negotiations.
But Ahmadinejad insisted that his government, for so long on a collision course with the West over its refusal to heed repeated UN Security Council ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment, was keen to strike a deal.
"We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear cooperation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to cooperate," the president said in a speech in Iran's second city of Mashhad broadcast live on state television.
He said the West had previously talked of "halting and suspending everything, but now they are talking about fuel exchange, nuclear cooperation, building nuclear power plants and reactors. They have moved from confrontation to cooperation."
He said that as a result "the conditions for nuclear cooperation are ready".
"Now the IAEA is returning to its actual position which is to help independent nations and to create healthy relations with other nations," he said, referring to the UN watchdog, which just completed an inspection visit to a second uranium enrichment plant Iran is building south of the capital.
Alluding to the three sets of UN sanctions imposed on Iran over its failure to suspend uranium enrichment, Ahmadinejad said the West had previously adopted a policy of "confrontation and threats, but today it has changed its attitude and we welcome it.
"We accept any hand extended to us in trust and honesty, without any plot or lie. But if that proves not to be the case, our response will be the same as we gave to (US president George W) Bush and his cronies," he said to cheers from the crowd.
Uranium enrichment is the sensitive process that lies at the heart of Western concerns over Iran's nuclear programme. It can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb.
Under the terms of the deal drawn up by the IAEA and already approved by Western governments, Iran would export to Russia more than 1,200 kilos (2,640 pounds) of its 3.5 percent low-enriched uranium (LEU) for refining up to 20 percent purity to fuel a Tehran reactor that makes medical isotopes.
France would then fashion the material into the fuel rods for the reactor.
Iran had originally been expected to respond to the proposals by last Friday but delayed its response amid conflicting views within the regime.
In Vienna, Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh said he expected there to be further negotiations on what he insisted was a "technical" issue between Iran and the watchdog.