Obama calls Medvedev, Sarkozy to consult on Iran

U.S. President Barack Obama called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday to consult on Iran's nuclear program, the White House said.

In their call, Obama thanked Sarkozy for France's close cooperation during the negotiations in Vienna toward an agreement responding to Iran's request for fuel for a Tehran research reactor, and both presidents affirmed their full support for the proposal put forth by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the White House said.

In his call to Medvedev, Obama thanked him for Russia's leadership in developing the proposal and both Medvedev and Obama affirmed their full support for the proposal and discussed the importance of all parties accepting it so implementation can begin as soon as possible, the White House said.

In the framework of the so-called P5+1 talks on Iran, both Obama and Medvedev underscored the need to maintain Russian and U.S. unity in pursuing the two nations' mutual concerns about Iran nuclear program.

The United States, Russia, France, Britain, China and Germany have been holding talks with Iran about its nuclear program which Western countries fear could be aimed at building a nuclear bomb. Tehran says its program is peaceful.

Tehran has said it will respond next week to the IAEA proposal under which it would send the bulk of its stock of low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for further processing into fuel for the Tehran reactor.

Obama and Medvedev also discussed other issues, including continued work to finish a new START treaty by the end of 2009. The current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires on Dec. 5.

In his call to Sarkozy, the two presidents expressed U.S.-French unity on Iran and agreed to continue their close consultations in the weeks ahead, the White House said.

Meanwhile, a team of UN inspectors went to Iran on Saturday to visit a recently revealed nuclear site, amid new efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency experts are slated to examine an unfinished uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom to verify it is for peaceful purposes. Disclosure of its existence last month raised international suspicion over the extent and aim of the country's nuclear program.

Iran official: West trying to cheat us with nuke deal

MIran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, said on Saturday that Western powers are trying to "cheat" Iran through the draft deal.

"They insist on going in a direction that speaks of cheating. They are imposing some things on Iran," Larijani told the student news agency ISNA, echoing some officials who suggested on Friday that instead of accepting the draft, Iran should buy nuclear fuel from abroad.

"I see no links between providing the fuel for the Tehran reactor and sending Iran's low enriched uranium abroad."

Other influential Iranian officials on Saturday also criticized the United Nations-drafted agreement, ISNA reported.

"Iran needs its 3.5 percent enriched uranium for use in our power stations. Consequently it is in Iran's interest to buy nuclear fuel," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliament's National Security and Foreign Affairs committee, quoted by ISNA.

Iran, which says its nuclear energy program is only for producing electricity, is years away from having any nuclear power plants that would use low enriched uranium.

The agreement requires Iran to send 1.2 tons of its known 1.5-tonne stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia and France by the end of the year, Western diplomats say.

There it would be further processed, in a way that would make it hard to use for warheads, and returned to Iran as fuel plates to power a Tehran reactor that makes radioactive medical isotopes but is due to run out of its imported fuel in a year.

Another leading lawmaker said any nuclear deal with world powers should be accompanied by the scrapping of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran.

"Any nuclear fuel deal with the West...should come with relinquishment of sanctions on Iran, particularly a lifting of sanctions on raw uranium imports," said lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported.

Buying enriched uranium abroad would not only fail to reduce the domestic stockpile worrying the international community, but also require sanctions imposed on Iran since 2006 to be waived to allow it to import such sensitive nuclear material.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on all state matters, including nuclear issue, has so far remained silent over the deal.

Iran's IAEA representative said a team of U.N. nuclear monitors was scheduled to visit Iran's newly disclosed second uranium enrichment plant on Sunday, state television reported.