R i g h t a r d i a: Iran agrees to further nuclear cooperation

Rightardia comment: This is great news and will defuse a lot of tension in the Middle East. This would never have happened if Obama had not visited Russia. The era of US Cowboy Diplomacy appears to be over.

01 October, 2009, 20:29

Iran has agreed to cooperate with IAEA and is likely to invite agency inspectors to its second enriching facility in next few weeks. Further talks wil also take place.

The six powers have met with Iranian officials in Geneva for talks over its nuclear ambitions and agreed on three crucial points to answer unresolved questions. This includes further talks, planned for October.

Tehran has also pledged to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit the second uranium enrichment facility near Qom, the existence of which was revealed last week at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Plus, Iran has agreed to outsource some of its uranium enrichment to third-party countries.

“In consultations with the agency [IAEA] and under margins of today’s meeting it was agreed in principal that low-enriched uranium produced in Iran would be transported to third countries for further enrichment and fabrication into fuel assembles for the Tehran research reactor, which produces isotopes for medical applications," said Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief.

Iran's Chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, also struck an optimistic note about Thursday's negotiations.

"First, we agreed to continue our talks and secondly we decided to base them on the common ground that we raised in our package of proposals, the common ground what we have agreed upon.We will set the time and venue for the next talks within the next month," Jalili said.

The U.S. and Iran also sat down for bilateral talks during a break in the meeting, what signaled a significant step forward from past U.S. policy of not negotiating with Tehran.

The Geneva talks included Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, France, the United States, Britain, China, Russia plus Germany.
Russia is ready to help

Russia says it could additionally enrich Iranian uranium (4% enrichment) to 19.75% in the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s project on making fuel for a Tehran research reactor, a source familiar with the talks told journalists, according to Interfax and Itar-Tass news agencies.

“Russia views this idea positively,” the source said. “If the request comes from the IAEA, we will be ready to accept and additionally enrich this uranium.”

As for the fuel itself, Iran will have to order it from France, the source added, as the Iranian research reactor was built by Argentina, which used French technology.

“After the enrichment Russia can pass the fuel to France or Argentina, which can then make the fuel assembly for the Iranian research reactor,” the source said.

A 19.75% enrichment conforms with the IAEA standards for civilian nuclear materials.

Daily Beast update

The Daily Beast's Michael Adler reports that the "steps to build confidence" announced today are more concrete than Obama revealed. Iran has agreed to ship 1,200 kilgrams of enriched uranium to Russia to process for medical purposes.

President Obama’s statement about a confidence-building measure from Iran this afternoon left out the key detail: In a breakthrough agreement at talks in Geneva, Iran has agreed to send 1,200 kilograms of enriched uranium to Russia for further processing. Two diplomats told the Daily Beast stated this would mean Iran no longer has enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

The promised move by Iran would seem to clear the way to serious talks.