Iran fails to endorse UN nuclear deal

Iran declined on Friday to endorse proposals by the U.N. nuclear watchdog to help reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium.

It said it was awaiting a "positive and constructive" response from world powers to its proposal on providing nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor producing medical isotopes, state television reported.

"Now we are awaiting a positive and constructive response on Iran's proposal from the other party on providing nuclear fuel for Tehran's reactor," TV quoted a member of Iran's negotiating team, who attended the Vienna meeting on Oct. 21, as saying.

"The other party is expected to avoid past mistakes in violating agreements ... and to gain Iran's trust," the unnamed official said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier Friday his country accepts the IAEA proposals.

"We agree with these proposals and we are counting on not only Iran, but all the other participants of the negotiations, to confirm their readiness to implement the proposed scheme," Lavrov told reporters.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog on Wednesday presented a draft deal to Iran and three world powers for approval within two days to reduce Tehran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium, seen by the West as a nuclear weapons risk.

Iran is under international pressure to agree a uranium enrichment deal brokered by the UN atomic watchdog under which Russia would further enrich Iranian low-enriched uranium on Russian soil.

The United States and France will shortly approve proposals from the
International Atomic Energy Agency that aim to break the deadlock on the
Iranian nuclear program, a diplomat told AFP Friday.

Iran has so far declined to say if it would endorse the plan, which Western diplomats said would require Tehran to send 1.2 tonnes of its known 1.5-tonne reserve of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France by the end of the year.

The material would be converted into fuel for a nuclear medicine facility in Tehran.

Now we are awaiting a positive and constructive response on Iran's proposal from the other party on providing nuclear fuel for Tehran's reactor

An Iranian nuclear negotiator