Iran may amend nuclear proposal

BEIRUT — Iran will seek to amend a proposed deal it reached with the U.S. and other major powers to ship the bulk of its nuclear material overseas, state television reported Tuesday.

Iran will respond by Thursday to a proposal to transfer most of its nuclear stockpile to Russia and France to be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical reactor, but its counteroffer will include "important adjustments," said Iran's state-controlled Al Alam, citing unnamed sources.

The Arabic-language television channel often broadcasts official news or floats trial balloons before other state-controlled networks.

The U.S., Russia, France and the International Atomic Energy Agency last week signed off on a plan to transport the bulk of Iran's enriched uranium to Russia and France to be refined further and shaped into fuel plates for the medical reactor, which produces isotopes for cancer diagnoses and treatment.

Although the proposed deal would not fully allay international concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions, it temporarily would reduce the country's stockpile and dampen fears that Iran suddenly could break out of treaty obligations and make a quick sprint toward developing a nuclear weapon. Diplomats also said the deal could lay the groundwork for broader negotiations.

But Iran watchers said they expect Iran to try to negotiate hard over the quantity and timing of the enriched uranium shipped abroad in order to gain maximum advantage and ease hard-liners' mistrust of any deal with the West.

"My experience in dealing with a lot of these guys is they won't give up anything until they absolutely have to," said Mark Fowler, a former CIA Iran expert now working as an analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington, D.C. "They will hold a very hard line. They won't give anything up, at least not upfront."

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Tuesday that the U.S. is waiting to weigh in until Iran submits an official response to the proposal.

But at least one American ally expressed impatience with Iran.

"Iran is wasting time because it is now that we need to talk. One day it will be too late," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on the sidelines of a meeting with European counterparts in Luxembourg, according to Agence-France Presse.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki said Iran was closely considering the deal but may want to send less than the 2,650 pounds of enriched uranium it specifies or purchase the enriched uranium required for the Tehran reactor.

Al Alam's Iran affairs editor, Nevid Behrouz, said Iran's worries about quantity it was to ship abroad and its worries that the West would not send the material back.

In addition to angling for a better deal, Iranian officials lack confidence in the West and the U.N. and even feel betrayed by Russia for dragging its feet in providing fuel for a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Fowler said.

"They truly believe that if they're not careful, they're going to step into some kind of trap ... they're going to be literally cheated, embarrassed or backed into a corner," he said.

U.S. conservatives, such as Bush administration veteran John Bolton, have criticized the Obama administration for endorsing the deal, saying it legitimized Iran's continued enrichment of uranium in violation of the U.N. Security Council.