United Nations readies Iranian nuclear draft agreement

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has drafted a proposal for an agreement between Iran, the UN, the US, France and Russia regarding Iran's nuclear research program. The agreement is intended to ensure that Iran is able to attain the fuel required for its research reactor which is used for producing medical isotopes used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the IAEA was optimistic about the result of the negotiations in Vienna. With many technical, legal and policy issues to be addressed, the talks have taken a long time. But he says that, "everybody at the meeting was trying to help, trying to look to the future and not to the past, trying to heal the wounds that existed for many years." The proposal suggests that Iran sends its unenriched uranium to the IAEA who would then oversee the enrichment process in Russia and France. The enriched uranium would then be sent back to Iran, but only enough to run the research reactor and not to develop a nuclear weapon. It is however a costly agreement for Iran, as a significant amount of the uranium sent for enrichment decays during transportation between the three countries. But from a diplomatic perspective this may be a price worth paying. The agreement builds on the understandings reached earlier in Geneva and it may be the first step in the "complete normalisation of relations between Iran and the international community", stated ElBaradei. The agency would like responses to the draft by Friday.