Iran to Accept Nuclear Fuel Deal but Wants Key Changes: Report

Al-Manar

27/10/2009 - Iran will accept the broad framework of a UN-brokered uranium deal but wants "very important changes," state television said Tuesday, adding Tehran will offer its formal response within 48 hours.

Two influential Iranian MPs also expressed optimism over the deal and indicated Iran could endorse it, a day after Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran may ship part of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) for conversion into fuel. "Iran will accept the broad framework of the deal, but wants very important changes in it," state-owned Arabic language Al-Alam TV channel said, quoting a source close to Tehran's nuclear negotiating team.

It did not elaborate but added that Tehran will offer its response to the deal within the next "48 hours".

Influential lawmaker Alaeddin Borujerdi, who heads parliament's powerful national security and foreign policy committee, said on Tuesday that Iran should hand over its LEU in batches as it would help in "confidence-building" with world powers. "We provide part of 3.5 percent enriched uranium to the party in the deal and once we receive the 20 percent, we give another batch of 3.5 percent," Borujerdi was quoted as saying by ILNA news agency. "In other words not all the fuel will be handed over in one batch."

A member of Borujerdi's committee, lawmaker Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, said the deal would be beneficial to all parties. "The talks in Vienna between Iran, the IAEA, US and Russia is a win-win deal for Iran ... and due to the exerted efforts by the two sides ... the deal is a win-win for both the sides," he said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.