By GEORGE JAHN
VIENNA
(AP) — The United States and other nations negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran
are ready to offer high-tech reactors and other state-of-the-art equipment to
Tehran if it agrees to crimp programs that can make atomic arms, according to a
confidential document obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
The draft
document — one of several technical appendices meant to accompany the main text
of any deal — has dozens of bracketed text where disagreements remain.
Technical cooperation is the least controversial issue at the talks, and the
number of brackets suggest the sides have a ways to go not only on that topic
but also more contentious disputes with little more than a week until the June
30 deadline for a deal.
With that
deadline looming, Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday
rejected a long-term freeze on nuclear research and supported banning
international inspectors from accessing military sites. Khamenei, in comments
broadcast on Iranian state television, also said Iran will sign a final deal
provided all economic sanctions now on Iran are first lifted — in a sign the
Islamic Republic may be toughening its stance ahead of the deadline.
The West has
always held out the prospect of providing Iran peaceful nuclear technology in
the nearly decade-long international diplomatic effort designed to reduce
Tehran's potential ability to make nuclear weapons. But the scope of the help
now being offered in the draft may displease U.S. congressional critics who
already argue that Washington has offered too many concessions at the negotiations.
Iran denies
any interest in nuclear weapons but is prepared to make concessions in exchange
for relief from billions of dollars in economic penalties. Beyond a pact
limiting Iran's ability to make a nuclear weapon for at least 10 years, the
U.S. and its negotiating partners hope to eliminate any grounds for Iran to
argue that it needs to expand programs that could be used to make such arms
once an agreement expires.
To that end,
the draft, entitled "Civil Nuclear Cooperation," promises to supply
Iran with light-water nuclear reactors instead of its nearly completed
heavy-water facility at Arak, which would produce enough plutonium for several
bombs a year if completed as planned.
Reducing the
Arak reactor's plutonium output was one of the main aims of the U.S. and its
negotiating partners, along with paring down Iran's ability to produce enriched
uranium — like plutonium, a potential pathway to nuclear arms.
Outlining
plans to modify that heavy-water reactor, the draft, dated June 19, offers to
"establish an international partnership" to rebuild it into a less
proliferation-prone facility while leaving Iran in "the leadership role as
the project owner and manager."
The eight-page
draft also promises "arrangements for the assured supply and removal of nuclear
fuel for each reactor provided," and offers help in the "construction
and effective operation" of the reactors and related hardware. It also
offers to cooperate with Iran in the fields of nuclear safety, nuclear
medicine, research, nuclear waste removal and other peaceful applications.
As well, it
firms up earlier tentative agreement on what to do with the underground site of
Fordo, saying it will be used for isotope production instead of uranium
enrichment.
Washington and
its allies had long insisted that the facility be repurposed away from
enrichment because Fordo is dug deep into a mountain and thought resistant to
air strikes — an option neither the U.S. nor Israel has ruled out should talks
fail.
But because
isotope production uses the same technology as enrichment and can be quickly
re-engineered to enriching uranium, the compromise has been criticized by
congressional opponents of the deal.
A diplomat
familiar with the negotiations said China was ready to help in re-engineering
the heavy water reactor at Arak; France in reprocessing nuclear waste, and
Britain in the field of nuclear safety and security.
He spoke on
the eve of Wednesday's new round of nuclear talks in Vienna and demanded
anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the confidential talks.
Diplomats say
the other appendices include ways of dealing with enrichment; limits on Iran's
research and development of advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges and ways of
making sure Tehran is keeping its commitment to the deal.
Iran has most
publicly pushed back on how much leeway the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy
Agency would have in monitoring Tehran's nuclear activities. Iran's supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is rebuffing U.S. demands that the IAEA have
access to military sites and nuclear scientists as they keep an eye on Iran's
present activities and try to follow up suspicions that the country worked in
the past on a nuclear weapon.
But a senior
U.S. official who demanded anonymity in exchange for commenting on the talks
said Tuesday that the sides are still apart not only on how transparent Iran
must be but all other ancillary issues as well. Separately, White House spokesman
Josh Earnest suggested the talks could go past June 30.
If a deal
"requires us to take a couple of extra days ... then we'll do that,"
he said.
A delay up to
July 9 is not a deal-breaker. If Congress receives a deal by then, it has 30
days to review it before President Barack Obama could suspend congressional
sanctions.
But
postponement beyond that would double the congressional review period to 60
days, giving both Iranian and U.S. opponents more time to work on undermining
an agreement.
Earnest indicated
that negotiations may continue even if the sides declare they have reached a
final deal, in comments that may further embolden congressional critics who say
the talks already have gone on too long.
He said that
even past that point, ongoing "differences of opinion ... may require
additional negotiations."
___
Associated Press writers Nancy Benac and Bradley Klapper
contributed from Washington.
