Tehran, October 27: Iran will accept the broad framework of a UN-brokered uranium deal but wants “very important changes,” state television said today, adding Tehran will offer its formal response within 48 hours.
As state-owned Arabic-language television said Iran will demand key changes to the deal, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Tehran has the right to pursue nuclear technology.
Officials, meanwhile, continued to express conflicting views on the draft that French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said amounted to “wasting of time.”
“Iran will accept the broad framework of the deal, but wants very important changes in it,” TV channel said, quoting a source close to Tehran’s nuclear negotiating team.
Without elaborating, it said Tehran will offer its response within “48 hours.”
State-owned English language television Press TV reported that Tehran will not shift its entire stock of low-enriched uranium (LEU) — as hinted at by the proposed deal — indicating Tehran would demand changes to it.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which drafted the deal, refused to comment on the reports, saying it is awaiting an official response from Tehran.
The television reports come a day after Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, in a first official response, said Iran might ship part of its LEU abroad, but buying the fuel from a foreign supplier was still an option.
—Agencies