Resolving Key Nuclear Issue Turns on Iran-Russia Deal ( Analysis )
Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON, Oct 28 2014 (IPS) - U.S. and Iranian negotiators are working on a compromise approach to the issue of Iran’s uranium enrichment capabilities, which the Barack Obama administration has said in the past Iran was refusing to make concessions on.
The compromise now being seriously discussed would meet the Obama administration’s original requirement for limiting Iran’s “breakout capability” by a combination of limits on centrifuge numbers and reduction of Iran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium, rather than by cutting centrifuges alone.
That approach might permit Iran to maintain something close to its present level of operational centrifuges.
The key to the new approach is Iran’s willingness to send both its existing stockpile of low enriched uranium (LEU) as well as newly enriched uranium to Russia for conversion into fuel for power plants for an agreed period of years.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/10/resolving-key-nuclear-issue-turns-on-iran-russia-deal/
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif prior the talks between the E3+3
(France, Germany, UK, China, Russia and U.S.) and Iran, Jul. 3, 2014 in Vienna, Austria. Credit: cc by 2.0