Another Obama policy failure

Iran Unlikely to Accept Nuclear Deal, Envoy Says

VIENNA (Reuters) — Iran’s envoy to the United Nations nuclear agency on Tuesday dismissed a suggestion by the United States that Iran should agree to tougher conditions than those it rejected last year for a possible compromise on its nuclear program.

Senior Obama administration officials said last week that the United States was prepared to revive an offer it made last year to ship Iran’s uranium to another country for enrichment, in a complex deal intended to ensure that Iran did not have access to enough highly enriched uranium to make a bomb. Western diplomats said any new deal would have to be updated to take into account Iran’s increased holdings of low-enriched uranium, which can be used to build bombs if refined much further.

But Iran’s envoy to the United Nations nuclear agency, when asked about an article in The New York Times that reported that Iran would be asked to release about two tons of its uranium stockpile under a revised proposal, indicated that Tehran was unlikely to agree. “I’m afraid there is no logic for these kind of statements,” he said.