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Iran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
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Last update - 13:18 20/10/2009
Diplomats: Iran nuclear talks stalled over French role
By News Agencies
Tags: Vienna, Israel News, IAEA 

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

Tuesday was the second day of talks in the Austrian capital between Iran and the United States, Russia and France over Iran's nuclear program. But discussions were delayed at least two hours in an attempt to resolve the impasse over the French.

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

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.

Iran, which holds a 10 percent share in a Eurodif nuclear plant in France, came to the talks vociferously critical of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government for withholding enriched uranium from that facility. Areva, the state-run French nuclear company, has described Iran as a sleeping partner in Eurodif, which Tehran bought into more than three decades ago.

Iran is under three sets of United Nations Security Council sanctions for defying demands that it freeze uranium enrichment. The sanctions include embargoes on all shipments of sensitive nuclear materials or technology.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki downplayed the problem.

"There are side issues ... with France," he told reporters. "We will talk about
it when time is right."

He also vowed that Iran woudl never abandon its "legal and obvious" right to nuclear technology.

"The meetings with world powers and their behavior shows that Iran's right to have peaceful nuclear technology has been accepted by them, Manouchehr Mottaki a news conference. "Iran will never abandon its legal and obvious right [to nuclear technology]."

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said the negotiations between Iran and the U.S., Russia and France got off to a good start Monday. However, three diplomats familiar with the discussions suggested little was accomplished besides outlining both sides' positions.

Despite ElBaradei's upbeat assessment, the diplomats said Iran would not elaborate on whether it was ready to ship its enriched material out of the country in Monday's session. They said Tehran had asked questions about the plan put forward by the U.S., Russia and France.

Before the meeting, Iran's state-run Press TV had cited unidentified officials in Tehran as saying the Islamic Republic was looking to keep its low-enriched uranium and buy what it needed for the Tehran reactor abroad. One said Iran was looking to the U.S., Russia or France for such supplies - a stance that would likely doom the talks, as neither the U.S. nor France expected to accept anything short of an Iranian commitment to ship out its own material for further enrichment.

If Iran does what the West says it has already agreed to do, it would turn over more than 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium - as much as 75 percent of its declared stockpile. Tentative plans would be for further enrichment in Russia and then conversion in France into metal fuel rods for Iran's nuclear reactor.

Iran agreeing to ship most of its enriched uranium abroad would significantly ease fears about Iran's nuclear program, since 1,000 kilograms is the commonly accepted amount of low-enriched uranium needed to produce
weapons-grade uranium.

Based on the present Iranian stockpile, the U.S. has estimated that Tehran
could produce a nuclear weapon between 2010 and 2015, an assessment that broadly matches those from Israel and other nations.

David Albright of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, which has tracked Iran for signs of covert proliferation, said any such deal would buy only a limited amount of time. He said Tehran could replace 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium in little over a year.


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      1.   Stating the obvious 10:21  |  Jim 20/10/09
      2.   The best thing that ever happened to Iran was obamas nobel prize 13:12  |  zionist forever 20/10/09
      3.   #2--the Nobel Peace Prize means nothing 13:36  |  Milton 20/10/09
      4.   As much as the US may like to..... 15:30  |  Jim 20/10/09
      5.   The trap 16:03  |  Haim E 20/10/09
      6.   The trap 16:03  |  Haim E 20/10/09
      7.   #1--not so obvious--diplomacy for what? 16:04  |  Paul Freedman 20/10/09
      8.   #4--Israel has to weigh strategic options 16:07  |  Paul Freedman 20/10/09
      9.   # 3 WELL SAID!! 16:27  |  SUNDAY 20/10/09
      10.   The independence of the french president is suspect 17:19  |  Chris Linthwaite 20/10/09
      11.   3 17:32  |  zionist forever 20/10/09
      12.   No free ride for France 18:23  |  David Moshkovitch 20/10/09
      13.   Reply to David 20:03  |  Jean-Paul Doguet 20/10/09
      14.   Just another Iranian attempt to break the west 20:50  |  Stephanie Mazerelli 20/10/09
      15.   nobel prizeand obama 21:06  |  sani 20/10/09
      16.   Iran stalls for time but its people are hungry and angry 22:28  |  Realist 20/10/09
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