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Iran Backs Away from Key Detail in Nuclear Deal
(New York Times) David E. Sanger and Michael R. Gordon - Iranian officials on Sunday said they are no longer willing to ship their atomic fuel out of the country under a proposed nuclear agreement. For months, Iran tentatively agreed that it would send a large portion of its stockpile of uranium to Russia, where it would not be accessible for use in any future weapons program. But Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, told the Iranian media, "There is no question of sending the stocks abroad," AFP reported. Western officials confirmed that Iran was balking at shipping the fuel out, but insisted that there were other ways of dealing with the material, such as blending it into a more diluted form. Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, "The viability of this agreement as a reliable arms control accord is diminished by this....One of the core administration arguments has been that the uranium would be shipped abroad as a confidence building measure."