Iran Agrees To Uranium Draft Deal
October 21, 2009 by St. Lucie Times Staff · Leave a Comment
Iran has agreed to a draft of a deal that would export its low-enriched uranium to Russia, reducing the country’s capabilities of making nuclear weapons.
Iran’s chief delegate, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said that while his side has accepted the draft, senior officials in Tehran would need to approve it.
The deal was first discussed in Geneva where the idea was for Russia to help enrich uranium for Iran and then send it to France for conversion into metal fuel rods to fuel a small research reactor in Tehran on October 1st.
A diplomat inside the closed meeting told The Associated Press the draft deal includes the export of most of Iran’s low-enriched uranium. The original talks reportedly had Iran willing to turn over 1,200 kilograms, or as much as 75 per cent of Iran’s declared stockpile of low-enriched uranium as part of the agreement. This would be significant because 1,000 kilograms is the accepted threshold of low-enriched uranium needed for production of weapons-grade uranium.
