US, allies critical of Iran’s new nuke deal

May 18, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama indicated Monday that he isn’t satisfied with a deal that Brazil and Turkey have negotiated with Iran to send some of its nuclear fuel abroad because it fails to address Tehran’s refusal to suspend its uranium- enrichment program.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs issued a statement acknowledging the effort, but he added that, like Britain and France, the U.S. would continue negotiations at the U.N. Security Council on a resolution imposing tougher sanctions on Iran.

“The proposal announced in Tehran must now be conveyed clearly and authoritatively to the IAEA before it can be considered by the international community,” Gibbs said, referring to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency. “Given Iran’s repeated failure to live up to its own commitments and the need to address fundamental issues related to Iran’s nuclear program, the United States and international community continue to have serious concerns.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Russia and China, which have opposed harsher sanctions, would use the new deal to delay the process. All five permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. — have veto power.

Turkey and Brazil, which hold rotating Security Council seats, brokered the deal in a bid to prevent the crisis from worsening.

“My expectation is that after this declaration, there will not be a need for sanctions,” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in Tehran, Reuters reported.

Erdogan and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva clinched the deal in talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Under the agreement, Iran would ship about 2,640 pounds of uranium enriched to about 3.5 percent to Turkey for storage. In return, Iran would be entitled to receive from Russia and France about 265 pounds of uranium enriched to 20 percent to fuel a research reactor in Tehran that’s used to produce medical isotopes.