BEIRUT — In what could be a stunning breakthrough in the years-long diplomatic deadlock over Iran's nuclear program, Tehran has agreed to send the bulk of its nuclear material to Turkey
as part of an exchange meant to ease international concerns about the
Islamic Republic's aims and provide fuel for an ailing medical reactor,
the spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry told state television Monday morning.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin
Mehmanparast told state television that a letter describing the deal
would be sent to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency within a week.
"After a final agreement is signed between Iran and the Vienna group, our fuel will be shipped to Turkey under the supervision of Iran
and the IAEA," he told journalists on the sidelines of a conference of
developing nations. "Then, we will dispatch 1,200 kilograms (2,640
pounds) of 3.5 percent enriched uranium to Turkey to be exchanged for 120 kilograms (264 pounds) of 20 percent enriched uranium from the Vienna group."
A joint statement was signed by the foreign ministers of all three countries and witnessed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, state radio reported.
The deal, brokered during an 18-hour session Sunday by leaders of Brazil and Turkey during a visit to Tehran, appears to build upon an IAEA proposal last year that was endorsed by the Obama administration and Western powers.
Iran was to send around 2,640 pounds of its low-enriched uranium to Russia to be further refined and afterward to France
to be converted into 20 percent enriched fuel plates for the Tehran
Research Reactor. The compromise was to serve as a way of drawing Iran's
supply of nuclear material below the threshold for building a bomb and
create an atmosphere for a broader deal between the West and Iran.
That deal faltered when Iran appeared to back away, with political factions in Tehran accusing the West of trying to swindle Iran out of its stockpile. A few months ago, upping tensions with the West, Iran began producing its own 20 percent enriched uranium, a move that diplomats and nonproliferation experts worried could bring Iran closer to the highly enriched uranium needed to fuel an atom bomb.
Many questions remain about the new deal. Only a handful of countries, including France and Argentina, are said to have the capacity to create the specialized fuel plates for the Tehran medical reactor, built by the United States before Iran's 1979 revolution.
The deal could also fall prey to factional battles within Iran's
domestic politics, where any sign of weakness in the face of Western
powers is viewed as selling out the nation. And it could also be
rejected by the Obama administration, which has shifted its tactics
from diplomatic outreach to Iran toward a push for isolating the country by tightening sanctions.
Obama is also under pressure by conservatives in Washington to take a tougher line on Iran.
Turkey does not enrich uranium. Though Mehmanparast said Turkey
has agreed to serve as the venue for the fuel exchange, it remains
unclear whether it would serve as a guarantor for the low-enriched
uranium or whether the material would be shipped to a nation with
refinement capacity such as Russia, Brazil or France.
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