Global Security Newswire

Iran today submitted its official response to a U.N. proposal for internationally refining much of its low-enriched uranium, purportedly demanding that it be allowed to gradually turn over limited portions of its stockpile, Reuters reported (see GSN, Oct. 28).

Submission of the response, reported by Iranian state media, came more than one week after International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei recommended that Iran rapidly transfer about three-fourths of its uranium to other nations as a means of addressing immediate concerns that it could produce enough material for a nuclear weapon. France, Russia and the United States have indicated their support for ElBaradei's proposal, put forward at the end of three days of talks between the four nations in Vienna, Austria.

The response reportedly calls for Tehran to receive shipments of uranium with higher enrichment levels, to be used at a medical research reactor, even as it sends its indigenous material out of the country.

ElBaradei received Iran's "initial response" on the proposal, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a statement. "(ElBaradei) 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," the release said without elaborating.

Details of the Iranian proposal were reported by the Iranian newspaper Javan, which did not specify how it had obtained the information.

If accurate, Tehran's terms could deflate Western hopes for a large uranium transfer that could defer Iran's ability to fuel a nuclear bomb for as long as one year. Washington and its allies hoped to use that period to negotiate a permanent halt to Iran's uranium enrichment program, according to Reuters (Reza Derakhshi, Reuters I, Oct. 29).

One diplomatic source said that Iran hopes to conduct indigenous uranium enrichment under the eye of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Associated Press reported.

"They don't want the LEU taken out," according to the diplomat. "They want to enrich it there (in Iran) under IAEA supervision" (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Oct. 29).

ElBaradei's proposed agreement must take Iran's priorities into consideration, Iranian Ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog Ali Asghar Soltanieh said today.

"We expect that our technical and economic concerns will be taken into consideration when dealing with the modalities of supply of nuclear fuel for Tehran research reactor," Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Oct. 29).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested today that Tehran's hard-line nuclear policies were bending the international community to its will, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"In the past [Western powers] said that we had to halt our nuclear activities," he said during a speech. "But today they say, 'Come consult about finding solutions for world problems,' and they want to cooperate for the exchange of fuel and development of nuclear technology and establishing a nuclear plant."

"They have changed their policies of confrontation to cooperation," Ahmadinejad said. "So you see, great nation of Iran, resistance against enemies has worked for us" (Daragahi/Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times I, Oct. 29).

Meanwhile, a U.N. inspection team returned to Vienna today after conducting a three-day probe of Iran's recently disclosed and yet-unfinished Qum uranium enrichment facility, Reuters reported.

"We visited the [Qum] enrichment plant. Now we are going to analyze the data," said IAEA safeguards operations director Herman Nackaerts, who led the four-member group.

The inspectors "carried out a full visit" to the facility and sought records to confirm that the site was strictly intended to produce low-enriched nuclear power plant fuel, according to one high-level diplomat (Derakhshi, Reuters I).

In Washington, the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday approved legislation that would enable the U.S government to impose unilateral economic penalties on firms selling gasoline to Iran.

The panel's endorsement of the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act marked "the first key step to ensure that President [Barack] Obama is empowered with a full range of tools he needs to address the looming nuclear threat from Iran," said panel Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.).

"We have very little time to lose. Should diplomacy fail, we must be prepared," Berman said (Susan Cornwell, Reuters II, Oct. 28). He added that the legislation would "at least force the Iranians to think twice about continuing to flout the will of the international community," the Los Angeles Times reported (Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times II, Oct. 29).

Three additional committees must endorse or consent to the bill before it could be considered on the House floor. The Senate Banking Committee is expected to consider comparable legislation today (Cornwell, Reuters II).

The State Department indicated, though, that it would prefer to pressure Iran over its nuclear program in cooperation with partner nations.

"We prefer this be done in a multilateral fashion," said spokesman Ian Kelly (Richter, Los Angeles Times II).

Elsewhere, Russia yesterday indicated it had not yet completed a planned delivery of its advanced S-300 air-defense system to Iran. Washington and Jerusalem have discouraged Moscow from shipping the system due to concerns that Tehran could use it to defend its nuclear facilities from potential air strikes

"There have been no such deliveries to date," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said (Reuters III, Oct. 28).