Diplomats: Iran talks stalled over French role

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Source: AP

VIENNA — Talks meant to persuade Iran to send most of its enriched uranium abroad — and thus delay its potential to make a nuclear weapon — bogged down Tuesday over fierce Iranian resistance to French participation, diplomats said.

Iran had signaled earlier that it would not meet Western demands for a deal under which it would ship most of its enriched material out of the country. Tehran has said it needs enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The West fears it could be used to make weapons, and the U.S. says Iran is one to six years away from being able to do so.

But a more immediate problem Tuesday appeared to be Iranian insistence that France be excluded from any participation in plans to turn the enriched material into fuel for Tehran's research reactor, the diplomats told The Associated Press.

One diplomat — who like the others inside the closed meeting demanded anonymity for discussing confidential information — suggested that the talks could fail unless the problem was resolved.



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