Iran has not yet informed IAEA of nuclear deal, say diplomats

Feb 4, 2010, 16:24 GMT

Vienna - Iran has not yet formally told the nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it would accept a nuclear deal brokered by the agency - despite affirmative comments made by the Iranian President, diplomats in Vienna said Thursday.

Western governments have urged Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to contact the IAEA to follow up on his comments earlier this week that he is ready to send low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing.

'There is nothing yet,' one diplomat said. The IAEA did not comment.

So far, Iran has not issued any formal response to the IAEA's October proposal - which suggests Russia and France as countries where the nuclear material be processed, with the US as a guarantor of the deal.

Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador in Moscow cast doubt on his country's readiness to approve such an agreement.

Ambassador Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi said one condition for the deal was that the exchange of Iran's uranium for foreign-made nuclear fuel should be 'simultaneous and exclusively on Iranian territory,' Interfax news agency reported.

The comment contradicted Ahmadinejad's announcements that the low- enriched uranium would be shipped out first, and that Iran was ready to wait for several months until it was processed abroad into fuel for a medical-purpose reactor in Tehran.

The other countries involved in the deal favour the latter option, as it would show Iran's willingness to let go of its sensitive nuclear material, and create a window of opportunity for wider- ranging negotiations.

All six countries trying to reach a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US - have welcomed Ahmadinejad's remarks but also expressed caution as they are waiting for a formal declaration by Iran.