AP is reporting that “Iran agreed Monday to ship most of its enriched uranium to Turkey in a nuclear fuel swap deal that could ease the international standoff over the country’s disputed nuclear program and deflate a U.S.-led push for tougher sanctions.

“The deal was reached in talks with Brazil and Turkey, elevating a new group of mediators for the first time in the dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities. The agreement was nearly identical to a U.N.-drafted plan that Washington and its allies have been pressing Tehran for the past six months to accept in order to deprive Iran — at least temporarily — of enough stocks of enriched uranium to produce a nuclear weapon.”

ROBERT NAIMAN
Naiman is policy director of Just Foreign Policy . Monday he wrote the piece: “It’s ‘Goooaaalll!’ for Lula Against Western Push for Iran Sanctions,” which states: “‘There is no ground left for more sanctions or pressure,’ Turkey’s foreign minister said. That should be true on the merits, but it’s a safe bet that the ‘anti-peace, pro-Israel’ lobby in Washington isn’t going to see it that way.

“How will the Obama administration see it? On Friday, Secretary of State Clinton predicted that [Brazilian President] Lula’s mediation effort would fail.

“Now the Obama administration has to choose. Does it really want a deal? Can it take ‘yes’ for an answer?”

GARETH PORTER
Porter is a journalist specializing in U.S. foreign policy who has written extensively about Iran’s nuclear weapons program for Inter Press Service and other outlets. His latest book is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167