VIENNA — Iran’s president pledged Thursday to work with the West to resolve a standoff over its nuclear program even as his country reportedly balked at a U.S.-backed deal to limit its uranium enrichment and curb its ability to make a nuclear warhead.
A Western diplomat said Iran rejected a plan to export most of its enriched uranium, offering instead to enrich it to a higher level inside the country under U.N. supervision.
The disconnect between the words of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Tehran’s decision, as related by the diplomat, reflected the difficulties facing international negotiators trying to persuade Iran to give up enrichment.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, was dismissive after seeing the offer.
“It’s the same old tricks,” he told AP: “A back-and-forth for further talks.”
Iran was considering a plan proposed last week by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei that would commit Iran to delivering 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia in one shipment for further enrichment and conversion into fuel for a Teh ran research reactor. Sending that amount in one batch would leave Tehran without enough material to make weapons-grade uranium, giving the international community a window of opportunity to persuade the Islamic Republic to freeze its enrichment program.
According to the Western diplomat familiar with the reply, Iran rejected the main thrust of the offer and was instead proposing to further enrich it inside Iran under IAEA supervision.
