TEHRAN — Iran still wants talks with world powers over fuel supplies to a Tehran nuclear reactor — despite the country's apparent rejection of a U.N. plan to curb Iran's enriched uranium stockpile.
The Iranian top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said late Sunday that Tehran "welcomes" talks on the nuclear issue with the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany. Jalili spoke during a meeting with visiting Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, according to Iran's state television.
Russia is part of the U.N. effort to ensure Iran doesn't use its nuclear program for weapons-making purposes, as the West fears. Moscow has warned it could back new sanctions against Iran if it fails to take a constructive stance in the nuclear talks.
A U.N.-brokered plan in October required Tehran to send 1.2 tons (1,100 kilograms) — around 70 percent of its stockpile — of low-enriched uranium to Russia in one batch by the end of the year for further enrichment, a move that would ease international concerns the material could be processed for a bomb.
According to the U.N. plan, after further enrichment in Russia, France would convert the uranium into fuel rods that would be returned to Iran for use in a reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Fuel rods cannot be further enriched into weapons-grade material.
Iran, which says its nuclear work is peaceful, has not yet given a final response to the U.N. proposal, and has come up instead with its own request to buy nuclear fuel from abroad. Iranian officials and lawmakers have hardened their stance toward the U.N. plan in recent comments, adding to the pressure on the government to altogether reject the draft.
In addition, Teheran has indicated it may agree to send only "part" of its stockpile in several shipments abroad and has threatened to — should the talks with world powers fail to help Iran obtain the fuel from abroad — enrich uranium to the higher level needed to power the research reactor domestically.
The back-and-forth has left the nuclear talks in limbo.
On his visit to Tehran, Ryabkov expressed hope the talks would be "concluded soon."
"Tehran still welcomes the talks based on its package of proposals," Jalili said, referring to the Iranian counteroffer.
The United States and its allies are unlikely to accept anything substantially less than the original U.N. plan.
But an American envoy at the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency in Vienna suggested the West is prepared to wait for a definitive Iranian response.
"We want to give some space to Iran to work through this. It's a tough issue for them quite obviously," said Glynn Davies, the chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
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Associated Press Writer George Jahn in Vienna contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS Corrects quote from US envoy to IAEA.)
Gee, big shock that Iran is backing out of the deal. Who could have forseen this? Okay, everybody.
"Gee big shock that" the right wing automatically assumes that Iran is the bogey man, does not have the right to decide how it wants to control its civilian nuclear program, and as usual of all right wing ideologues, selectively focus on a country that has no nuclear weapons, unlike Israel and American Empire which bullies Iran, in the same ideological way.
Lots of assumptions there. First of all, I'm not right wing. Secondly, I made no comment about whether Iran should or should not have a nuclear program. My comment was solely aimed at the fact that they consistently make various promises and never follow through. Are you done your little rant now?
BelindaK:
You may not be, but when singling out one state as the problem, when other states clearly have such problems, is an exceptional, imperial, right wing ideological statement, which requires universal standards, to negate its rightward drift.
Its very socking and surprising news that Iran refuse it,anyway its matter of Iran Lawmaker so i don't think that they will change their decision.
As usual, the corporate media, AP, can be counted on to carry out the warmongering, bullying ideological propaganda for Israel, the West and American Empire threats, all completely illegal under the U.N. Charter.
Both the American intelligence agencies, and again, the U.N. nuclear agency, the I.A.E.A., just reported out that Iran's nuclear program is legal under the NPT treaty, and is not a threat, like Israel, which has many nuclear weapons, but which AP, and the corporate press, in their Western bullying, ignore, typical of Western class and imperial standards, double standards, illega standards. Take a look at how this is ideologcally poisoned by AP, and the corporate press with their statement:
"The UN-brokered plan required Iran to send 1.2 tons (1,100 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium — around 70 percent of its stockpile — to Russia in one batch by the end of the year, easing concerns the material would be used for a bomb."
There are three ideological implied, lies, inserted into this nugget of propaganda. First, too often, the corporate media, corrupt the terminology of who and what elements in the U.N. actually represents the U.N. All too often, when the West, particularly, American Empire and Zionist Israel, corrup the Security Counil, with its class hierarchies, of privileged states, and its hierarchical vetoes, the "U.N" is substituted for American bullying, Zionist apologetics, where the vote is actually 190 against and 3 for supportng Zionist war crimes, thus reporting that the U.N. opposed resolutions against Israel's war crmes. The fact that t was the hypocritical Western elements that demanded this option does not make it "required" U.N. option.
Secondly, historically, it was the West which helped the criminal, proto fascist, Zionist state of Israel, covertly get its nuclear weapons, especially, Britain, France, and American Empire, and whose warmongerig logic, that says, that if Iran has nuclear weapons, would be a reason for an illegal aggression, are silent, not a peep, about bombing Zionst Israel for its real nuclear weapons, and like, other existing nuclear countries and were not "required" to send their nuclear stock, to a third country, yet again ther duplicitous, bullying exceptionailsm, proto fascist ideology, AP rants for double standards.
Thirdly, the continuous, refusal to admit that IRAN'S peaceful, NPT treaty and civilian nuclear program, comes up, again, against the duplicious, proto fascist, ideological standard by AP, that other states which have not signed the NPT treaty, like Israel, are not threats, while IRAN, which has, is a threat. Such wildly ideological bullying, implied lies, comes up against one of many reports which says Iran is not a nuclear threat, yet AP, quotes the Western thugs and its lies that Iran is a threat:
IAEA Found Nothing Serious At Iran Site: ElBaradei
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/47533
excerpt:
"U.N. inspectors found "nothing to be worried about" in a first look at a previously secret uranium enrichment site in Iran last month, the International Atomic Energy chief said in remarks published Thursday.
Mohamed ElBaradei also told the New York Times that he was examining possible compromises to unblock a draft nuclear cooperation deal between Iran and three major powers that has foundered over Iranian objections.
The nuclear site, which Iran revealed in September three years after diplomats said Western spies first detected it, added to Western fears of covert Iranian efforts to develop atom bombs. Iran says it is enriching uranium only for electricity. Read "
SO, AP, I HAVE QUOTED ACTUAL U.N. RELATED, U.N. NUCLEAR OFFICIALS, UNLIKE YOUR POLLUTED IDEOLOGICAL, WESTERN THUGS, WHO LIKE THE U.N. ATOMIC AGENCY, THE I.A.E.A., SAY IRAN IS NOT A THREAT. HOW DO YOU GET AWAY WITH SUCH THREATS, BULLYING, WESTERN PROPAGANDA?
My U.N. officials are more credible, than your corrupt Western thugs within the corrupted Security Council and other agencies, via class hierarchies, privileged bullying.
You cannot sit here and honestly tell me that you don't believe Iran would be a threat if nuclear armed. That's extremely naive.
BelindaK:
Please stop with they hypocrisy. Iran is not a threat. Did you read the I.A.E.A, statement? Or the many Western intelligence agencies, and still why are you focusing on Iran? Even if Iran does get the technology to build such nuclear weapons, does not give the Zionists, Nazi Western states the right to carry out illegal aggression against Iran....as Israel has such hundreds of weapons, already, and not a peep, about aggression.
The best solution is universal disarmanent, but the West, Zionist Israel, American Empire do not even propose real actions to achieve that goal.
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