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Goodwill is put to the test as Iran nuclear talks reopen
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 16 - 10 - 2009

A deal to get Iran's nuclear materials out of the
country, and in return supply its research reactor, would help push
forward the world powers' wider talks with the Islamic state,
diplomats said ahead of a meeting in Vienna starting on Monday, according to dpa.
But both sides were eying each other's goodwill and intentions
warily ahead of the talks at the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA).
Referring to Iran's leaders, a Western diplomat said: "They have
asked for this deal, and I hope they can take yes for an answer."
After the outlines of the fuel export scheme were agreed in multi-
party negotiations in Geneva at the start of the month, high-ranking
officials and technical experts from Iran, France, Russia, the United
States and the IAEA are set to gather to hammer out details.
Under this deal, Iran would ship most of its enriched uranium to
Russia, where it would be enriched further to a level suitable for a
research reactor that makes nuclear medicine for cancer treatment.
The material would then go to France, where it would be
manufactured into fuel units, before being sent back to Iran.
The reactor's fuel is due to run out in 18 months, and experts and
diplomats say Iran lacks the means to make such fuel itself.
This scheme would allay the West's fears that Iran might misuse
its uranium for nuclear weapons, diplomats said - a fear that has
been rekindled recently by Tehran's late revelation about a second
enrichment plant near Qom.
"This would be a chance for Iran to show that it uses its enriched
uranium only for civilian purposes," a European diplomat said in
Vienna.
It would open a time window for negotiations in which the uranium
stock is out of the country, and "create some breathing space" for
Iran's wider nuclear talks with Britain, China, France, Germany,
Russia and the US, Washington-based non-proliferation expert Joshua
Pollack said.
While the fuel re-export plan may sound simple, technical and
legal details still have to be negotiated in the Vienna talks, which
the IAEA said could last up to three days.
Although Western diplomats said after the Geneva meeting that the
idea was to export most of Iran's enriched uranium, diplomats from
several involved countries said this week that the exact amount was
something yet to be agreed upon, along with the timing of the
shipment and the costs.
France wants the shipment to occur before year-end, according to
an internal French Foreign Ministry document published by French
weekly Bakchich Hebdo, and the European diplomat said that Washington
and Paris want it to happen as soon as possible.
But ahead of the talks on this confidence-building measure, it
appeared that both sides were not fully confident of each other's
goodwill.
If the involved countries did not implement the agreement, Iran
would manufacture the fuel itself, the spokesman of Iran's Atomic
Energy Organization, Ali Shirzadian, was quoted by the ISNA news
agency last week.
On the other side, a Western diplomat was disappointed about the
news that Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi would not attend the
Vienna meeting, casting doubt on Tehran's commitment to the talks.
Pollack said that although the nuclear negotiations might run into
obstacles, as Iran's leaders might find it difficult to sell its
population the idea of a pact with the West, "I think Obama is
determined to keep talking until his deadline expires" at the end of
December.


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