GENTHOD, Switzerland — Fresh from a landmark meeting that put nuclear talks back on track, Iran and six world powers are already quibbling over what was agreed on ahead of follow-up talks later this month.
Iran accepted a demand Thursday at the talks in a villa outside Geneva to allow U.N. inspectors into its covertly built enrichment plant, in a move that appeared to defuse tensions that had been building for weeks.
Western officials said the Islamic republic also had agreed to allow Russia to take some of its enriched uranium and enrich it to higher levels to fuel its research reactor in Tehran, a potentially significant move that would show greater flexibility by both sides.
But Mehdi Saffare, Iran’s ambassador to Britain and a member of the Iranian delegation at the talks, told The Associated Press the issue had “not been discussed yet.”
Asked whether Iran had accepted, he replied: “No, no!”
Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, told reporters Friday night after returning to Tehran that the discussions did address an Iranian request for the IAEA to help it purchase fuel for the Tehran medical research reactor from agency member countries able to supply it.
Speaking in Washington, President Barack Obama called the talks “a constructive beginning” and said Iran must match its words with action.
The tone of the meeting Thursday was considerably more positive than just a week ago, when the U.S. and its allies were threatening Iran with tough new sanctions if it refused to freeze its nuclear activities, which they suspect are aimed at creating an atomic weapon.
