In what may herald a sharp reversal of previous statements, a senior Iranian official said Wednesday that Iran would “seriously and enthusiastically” study a Russian proposal aimed at breaking the deadlock in efforts to block Iran from enriching nuclear fuel.
The official, Javad Vaidi, deputy head of the Supreme National Security Council, was referring to a proposal by Russia several weeks ago under which Iranian-produced uranium gas would be processed into fuel in Russia and returned to Iran.
That would ensure that Iran would be able to produce fuel only for nuclear power and could not enrich the uranium into a form that could be used in weapons. It would also slow Iran’s ability to obtain enrichment technology.
Last week in Vienna, in talks with British, German and French negotiators, Iran rejected the same proposal, telling the Europeans to “act on the proposition that enrichment will be conducted inside” Iran and that any other option was “unacceptable” and an “insult.”
There have been some hints of a struggle within the new government in Tehran over nuclear policy, American and European officials say.
Vaidi’s statement indicating a more welcoming attitude toward the Russian proposal was reported Wednesday by the Iranian Student News Service, which has been used in the past to make policy declarations to the world.
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One interpretation is that Iran, faced with the possibility that the Europeans will end the talks and refer Iran’s violations of the non-proliferation accord to the UN Security Council for a vote on sanctions, has decided that the Russian proposal is an acceptable compromise.
But some say it is equally likely that Iran was not so much making a policy change as continuing the jockeying for international support that has been taking place over the past several months.
The United States and the three European nations have been trying to convince Russia and China that Iran is seeking a weapon and pressing them to tell Tehran that neither would block action at the Security Council.