As world awaits Tehran on nukes deal, inspectors travel to Iran

Iran has delayed its final response to last week's draft agreement that would help end the crisis over its nuclear program. Meanwhile, a group of UN inspectors traveled to Iran yesterday to visit a nuclear site whose existence was only recently acknowledged by Tehran.

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency are scheduled to examine an unfinished uranium enrichment facility near Qom to verify that the work there is for peaceful purposes.

Disclosure of its existence last month raised international concerns over the real extent and aims of Iran's nuclear program.

On Friday - the deadline for the Islamic Republic to respond officially to the draft agreement - Iran announced that it was still considering the offer made by the members of the UN Security Council and Germany. It said it would give a final answer by the middle of this week.

According to the IAEA, the United States, France and Russia have already suggested that they intend to accept the draft agreement.

U.S. President Barack Obama called French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday to discuss Iran. The two leaders said there was perfect convergence of views on the Iranian nuclear issue, according to the French president's office.

According to the agreement, Iran would deliver all the low-grade enriched uranium - 3.5 percent enrichment - from its plant in Natanz to a facility of Rosatom, Russia's atomic energy commission. In Russia, the uranium would be enriched to 20 percent and be sent to France, where it would undergo treatment that would transform it into fuel rods for use in reactors.

Only at the completion of the process, which is expected to last 18 months, would it be delivered to Iran to fuel the small nuclear reactor in Tehran, which is meant for isotope research.

At a conference in Geneva less than a month ago, Iran agreed in principle for the transfer of its uranium; it reiterated its consent by supporting the formula of the draft agreement last week. But now, parliamentarians and analysts are hinting on Iran's state-run media that Tehran does not accept the deal.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani and other senior figures such as the head of parliament's national security committee suggested yesterday that Iran must not send its uranium outside its borders. Instead, it must be allowed to purchase uranium enriched at 20 percent for the reactor in Tehran.

Such a sale is prohibited by UN Security Council sanctions because of the country's nuclear and missile programs.

The Iranian position suggests that the country's top leaders seriously disagree, or they are highlighting difficulties in accepting the deal so there will be no future demands of Tehran for concessions on the nuclear program.