Iran is facing mounting pressure from the international community after is missed a deadline to accept a UN nuclear agency deal on its atomic programme, saying it would respond to the proposal next week. The US, Russia and France all met Friday's deadline and agreed to the proposal for most of Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) to be sent abroad.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said: "Iran is precisely examining different dimensions of the contents of the proposed agreement about the provisional supply of fuel for the Tehran research reactor.
"After final evaluation, I will give the result to Mr ElBaradei [the IAEA director-general] when I return to Vienna next week."
Following Tehran's announcement, ElBaradei said he hoped Iran's response would be positive as it was important for a new "ere of co-operation".
The deal on Iran's LEU was brokered by the IAEA at a meeting involving all four countries in Vienna, Austria, at a meeting on Wednesday.
Earlier on Friday, Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, had said indications that Iran would sign up to the deal were "not positive".
"I do not know what the results in Vienna today are, but the signs we received [from Iran] this morning are not positive. It is a pity," he said."France hopes a peaceful solution ... will be found and accepted and that nuclear development is not used for military purposes. That much is clear."
ElBaradei set Friday as the deadline for the four powers to sign the arrangement after their meeting on Wednesday.
The US and its allies are hoping to secure Iran's approval to ease Western fears about Iran's suspected ambition to make a nuclear weapon - a charge Tehran denies.
The US will wait wait a few days for Iran's response to the offer, President Barack Obama's administration said on Friday.
"I think we can stretch things a few days," Ian Kelly, the US state department spokesman, said. "But we're not going to wait forever."
Source: Al Jazeera (English)
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