A new Iranian offer to ship out about half of its nuclear fuel—in a surprise deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey—posed a fresh obstacle to U.S.-led efforts to punish Iran for its nuclear program, and underlined U.S. difficulties in affirming its global leadership amid the assertiveness of smaller powers.
Tehran agreed to the proposal during a weekend meeting between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the leaders of Turkey and Brazil—two developing economies aiming to wield more clout on the diplomatic stage, often by opposing the U.S. "Diplomacy emerged victorious," Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Brazilian radio. "It showed that it is possible to build peace and development with dialogue."
The Obama administration said it had "serious concerns" about the new offer, a weaker version of one that Iran negotiated last October with a broader group of countries to avoid sanctions—but which Tehran's government declined to approve.
For instance, in the previous agreement Iran would have halted its efforts to enrich uranium to a level of more than 3%-4%. In the new offer, Iran isn't called upon to stop its higher enrichment, now at 20%. (Weapons-grade uranium is enriched to 90%.) Though Iran would still ship out the same amount of fuel to be enriched elsewhere for its use in medical research, it has more of the fuel now—so it would keep more.
U.S. and European diplomats worried Tehran's renewed fuel-swap plan could upend progress toward enacting new sanctions on Iran's program through the United Nations Security Council.
Iran "must demonstrate through deeds—and not simply words—its willingness to live up to international obligations or face consequences, including sanctions," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
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