GENEVA, October 16 (RIA Novosti) – Iran is ready to compromise over its controversial uranium enrichment program, if international sanctions against the country are lifted, a diplomatic source said Wednesday.
The offer to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent was made at the 5+1 talks between Iran and a group of international negotiators in Geneva, a source close to the negotiations told RIA Novosti on condition of anonymity.
It would be a temporary measure to create “an atmosphere of trust,” the official said.
The international community remains concerned that Iran’s uranium enrichment program is for military, not civilian, ends.
In order to be used in weapons production, uranium needs to be enriched over 20 percent.
Iranian diplomats have said publicly that Tehran is ready to negotiate volumes and methods of uranium enrichment, and to allow snap inspections of its nuclear facilities.
The two-day talks in Geneva are slated to close Wednesday, but may be extended, an Iranian source said earlier.
The 5+1 group includes five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States – as well as Germany.
Talks on Iran’s nuclear program have been running for years but yielded little, prompting several rounds of international sanctions by the UN and Western countries that hit the Iranian economy hard.
However, Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, elected last June and known as a moderate, has voiced his willingness to end the standoff and normalize relations with the United States and the country’s other critics.
