Iran and the European Union's "big three" states are deadlocked over whether Iran should be permitted to continue processing uranium if it freezes its uranium enrichment programme, diplomats said today.
France, Britain and Germany have been negotiating with Iran for over a year to try to persuade the Islamic republic to abandon its nuclear fuel production plans. Over the weekend, diplomats from the four parties reached a tentative deal, though they have not been able to agree on its scope.
Several Western diplomats said Iran told France, Britain and Germany that it wanted to continue converting raw uranium into uranium tetrafluoride (UF4), a precursor to uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the form of uranium that is fed into centrifuges to enrich it for use as fuel in power plants or weapons.
"Iran wants to continue making UF4 but the Europeans are opposed to this," a diplomat said of the continuing negotiations between the EU trio's capitals and Tehran. "Neither side wants to back down."
The Europeans want Tehran eventually to terminate -- not just suspend -- enrichment, but Iran has said this is out of the question and threatened to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the West keeps up its pressure.
"If they start to pressure or threaten us, then we will put aside the treaty and go underground," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Iranian negotiator Mr Sirus Naseri as saying.
"In that case, after one or two years, America and the EU will send mediators to talk to us and find a solution," he said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency hopes Iran will formally announce that it has agreed to suspend its enrichment programme, which Washington says will be used to make fissile uranium for bombs, to ease concern about its nuclear plans and avoid a referral to the UN Security Council.
Oil-rich Iran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity.