Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during a press conference in Tehran on October 20, 2009. (AFP/Getty Images)
The negotiations in Vienna offer the first chance to build on tentative deals made in Geneva on Oct. 1 to defuse a standoff over suspicions that Iran's uranium enrichment campaign is covertly intended to develop nuclear weapons.
"The meetings with world powers and their behaviour shows that Iran's right to have peaceful nuclear technology has been accepted by them. Iran will never abandon its legal and obvious right," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.
Western diplomats said the talks aimed to flesh out details of an Iranian agreement in principle in Geneva to send low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for further refinement. This would be converted into fuel rods to replenish dwindling fuel stocks of a Tehran reactor that makes radio-isotopes for cancer care.
The meeting between Iran and Russia, France and the United States, hosted by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, began on Monday but stalled on Tuesday after Tehran suddenly refused to deal directly with France.
Mottaki and other officials in Tehran said France could not be part of the uranium supply plan, accusing it of reneging on contracts to deliver nuclear materials in the past.
A senior diplomat familiar with the talks said the parties were considering a face-saving compromise drafted by the U.N. nuclear watchdog. Under this Iran would sign a contract with Russia, and Russia would sub-contract further work to France.
Other tough issues were requiring back-door consultations to settle before the meeting could resume to seal an agreement.
They included how much low-enriched uranium (LEU) Iran would send out, and when. Western powers wanted this to be about 75 percent of its declared stockpile, and to be shipped abroad in one consignment before the end of the year.
French, U.S. and Russian delegations were seen circulating a draft document during the day. But a 1430 GMT target for resuming the meeting was not met, without explanation.
The West hopes that farming out a large amount of Iran's LEU reserve for reprocessing into fuel for the medical isotope reactor—using technology Iran lacks—will minimise the risk of Iran refining the material to high purity suitable for bombs.
Western diplomats say Tehran must ultimately curb the programme to dispel fears of a growing LEU stockpile being further enriched, covertly, to produce nuclear weapons.
Enrichment to Continue
But Mottaki said Iran would not curtail enrichment as part of the LEU deal, as demanded by the U.N. Security Council. "Iran will continue its uranium enrichment. It is not linked to buying fuel from abroad," he told a Tehran news conference.LEU is used as fuel for nuclear reactors, while a nuclear bomb requires highly enriched uranium. The West fears Iran's declared civilian nuclear energy programme is a front for producing fissile material for atomic bombs. Iran denies this.
Mottaki said Iran did not need France for the fuel plan.
"There are Russia, America ... I believe these countries are enough. Not too many countries are needed to provide Iran with the fuel," he said. "France, based on its shortcomings to fulfil its obligations in the past, is not a trustworthy party to provide fuel for Iran."
Iran has been hit by three rounds of U.N. sanctions for refusing to halt enrichment-related work. It said on Monday it would not hesitate to produce higher enriched uranium on its territory if the talks failed in Vienna.
Iran won a reprieve from harsher U.N. sanctions by agreeing on Oct. 1 to IAEA inspections of a hitherto hidden enrichment site and to sending LEU abroad to ease concerns that it could achieve nuclear weapons "breakout" capacity in short order.
