Iran Rejects Deal to Ship Out Uranium, Officials Report

[JudyInTheHeartland]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, according to diplomats in Europe and American officials briefed on Iran’s response.

The apparent rejection of the deal could unwind President Obama’s effort to buy time to resolve the nuclear standoff.

In public, neither the Iranians nor the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, revealed the details of Iran’s objections, which came only hours after Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, insisted that “we are ready to cooperate” with the West.

But the European and American officials said that Iranian officials had refused to go along with the central feature of the draft agreement reached on Oct. 21 in Vienna: a provision that would have required the country to send about three-quarters of its current known stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia to be processed and returned for use in a reactor in Tehran used to make medical isotopes.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/middleeast/30nu...

[excess_3]

1. surpise surprise surprise .nt

[Ed76638]

2. of course not.

What nation on Earth would want to be babied liked that?

[Chulanowa]

3. So the question is... would the US have accepted this provision for themselves?

Would the US, at its own expense, send nuclear materials across a few other nations' borders - twice - in order to accomplish something it can do at home?

Would it do so with the justification that the rest of the world thinks the US is a bunch of dicks?

Yeah right.

[DRoseDARs]

4. Translated, "Please Israel, we REALLY want glow-in-the-dark powers."

They seem to be warming to the "Bomb bomb bomb bomb Bomb Iran" slogan.

[pampango]

5. Ahhh, the North Korea tactic. Agree, renounce agreement, test fire, hold talks, agree, renounce...

Not only has North Korea proven that having nuclear weapons provides a large degree of regime security, but they have shown the way to negotiate with the West to get what you want.

You can agree or disagree with what Iran is doing, but you have to say that they are not stupid. They learn from what happens in the world and use that knowledge effectively to accomplish whatever their government's goal is whether that is staying in power by suppressing electoral discontent or achieving nuclear power - peaceful or otherwise.

[FarCenter]

6. They want to get fuel rods sent to Iran coincident with sending low enriched uranium out

They want to start receiving fuel rods for the research reactor early fabricated from other uranium at the same time as they start sending their low enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichement and then to the US for fabrication into fuel rods.

They also want to do this in batches, rather than sending 75% of their stock at once.

Obviously, this is to prevent the US from deciding on some pretext to not send the fuel rods back to Iran.

Seems like a fair request.

[JudyInTheHeartland]

8. Really? You take the Iranian leadership at face value?

[FarCenter]

11. I don't take either the Iranian or US leadership at face value

They are following Reagan's motto, "trust, but verify".

They obviously don't trust that they will get their uranium back if they send it to the US in one lot.

[AngryAmish]

7. and the centrifuges spin on

[seafan]

9. BBC Oct 29: Iran leader welcomes nuclear plan vs. NYT: Iran 'rejects deal'

Iran leader welcomes nuclear plan

29 October 2009
08:56 GMT



An Iranian deal with the UN nuclear watchdog would ease tension

The president of Iran says his country is ready to co-operate with a proposal to enrich nuclear fuel abroad to ease tensions over its nuclear programme.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the International Atomic Energy Agency proposal as a move from "confrontation to cooperation" by western powers.

Iran insists it is entitled to enrich uranium for fuel but the US and allies accuse it of seeking nuclear weapons.

Iran was reportedly intending to give an answer to the IAEA in Vienna today.

"We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear cooperation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to cooperate," Mr Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in the city of Mashhad quoted by AFP news agency.

He also reiterated that Iran would not retreat on its rights for peaceful nuclear energy, adding that the provision of enriched fuel by the Western powers for research in Iran would be a chance to test the "honesty" of Iran's critics.

Correspondent in Tehran say the government is expected to accept the framework of the IAEA deal, but also demand changes to it.

.....

Yet, David E. Sanger, Steven Erlanger and Robert F. Worth over at the NYT are shouting:


October 30, 2009

WASHINGTON — Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, according to diplomats in Europe and American officials briefed on Iran’s response.

The apparent rejection of the deal could unwind President Obama’s effort to buy time to resolve the nuclear standoff.

In public, neither the Iranians nor the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, revealed the details of Iran’s objections, which came only hours after Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, insisted that “we are ready to cooperate” with the West.

.....

Apparently, the Times disregards the fine details every chance they can.


Nothing but a joke.

[ronnie624]

10. A joke indeed.

Being "ready to cooperate" isn't necessarily the same as accepting every provision of a proposed agreement.

The goal of U.S. propaganda outlets is to portray Iran as totally uncooperative, but the fact of the matter is, Iran has no obligation to accede to any demands outside the framework of the NPT. No other power - certainly not the United States - would ever allow this sort of violation of its sovereignty.

The real goal of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, is to prevent Iran from becoming a deterrent to its own designs in the Middle East: control over energy reserves, a position that offers tremendous strategic and economic power.

The U.S. is the one that needs to become more cooperative, and stop trying to establish global hegemony through militarism.