Iran Hints At Acceptance Of Atom Deal With Powers

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

Published: October 26, 2009
Filed at 10:24 a.m. ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday it could endorse a U.N. deal for it to send potential nuclear fuel abroad for processing, contradicting lawmakers who rejected the plan sought by world powers as a trap.

The remark by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was the most positive yet from a senior Iranian official and hinted at fierce backroom debate between hardliners and moderates in the faction-ridden Iranian leadership on whether to accept the deal.

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In Iran, U.N. inspectors were examining a hitherto secret uranium enrichment site bunkered inside a mountain to verify Tehran's stance that the plant was meant to make only low-enriched fuel for electricity, not the high-purity version for nuclear arms.

Understandings on the fuel plan and outside access to the enrichment plant under construction were struck at high-level Geneva talks between Iran and six world powers on October 1.

They see the deals as litmus tests of Iran's stated intent to use enriched uranium only for peaceful ends, and a basis for more ambitious negotiations on curbing enrichment in Iran to defuse a crisis over its disputed nuclear aspirations.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/10/26/news/news-us-iran-nuclear.html