Media report : US may allow Iran nuclear plan with safeguards
In a major dilution of its stance so far, Obama administration officials have hinted that the US could consider allowing Iran to continue with the development of a crucial element of its disputed nuclear program provided Tehran makes a commitment to curb its development of a nuclear bomb.
Quoting unidentified officials, the Los Angeles Times claims that the US administration may agree to let Tehran continue enriching uranium up to concentrations of 5% if the Iranian government agreed to allow inspections, strict oversight and safeguards as demanded by the United Nations and the group of five plus nations including the five security council members and Germany.
As unveiled a few months back, Iran has begun enriching small amounts of uranium to 20% purity in February 2010 for use in power generation and for other peaceful purpose including health.
Uranium can be used for bomb making at about 90% enrichment.
There is as yet no consensus within the US administration on whether to approve giving green signal to Iran to proceed with even low-level enrichment as is the status in Iran currently .
The US allies are also not willing to take the risk of allowing Iran to proceed and run the risk of Iranian scientists continuing to work stealthily on the nuclear programme that could one day lead to Iran being able to assemble a nuclear bomb.
The Los Angeles Times report claims that a consensus is gradually emerging among officials in the US and its allies that the Iranians are unlikely to accede to a complete halt to enrichment.
Therefore it would be better to negotiate a deal that would provide for some checks and balance to prevent Iran going the full course and gearing up for any future confrontation.
On April 14, the US and other developed nations began talks in Istanbul to broker a deal with Iran. The second round of talks is scheduled to be held in Baghdad on May 23.
The proposed shift in the U.S. position is unlikely to be acceptable to Israel which has been issuing conflicting statement with regards Iran's capability and intentions to pursue a military confrontation course.
There are many within the Congress who are known to have strong views on Iran and are would favour a more aggressive stance than the line being pursued by the Obama administration.
Source: United States News.Net
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