Word: iranians
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Russian position is technically correct: Iran hasn't formally responded, but for the Western powers, that's the whole point - the proposed deal was negotiated weeks ago with Iranian representatives in Vienna, and Iran's government was asked to endorse it within a couple of days. But the plan faced a firestorm of criticism from across the political spectrum in Tehran, prompting the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to backtrack. The aspect of the plan that most appeals to the West - removing from Iran most of a uranium stockpile that could hypothetically be turned into a weapon, and returning...
Rather than reject the deal, outright, Tehran declares support for its framework, but has begun floating counter-proposals on the timing and scale of the Iranian uranium exports it would involve, aiming to avoid relinquishing most of Iran's existing nuclear fuel stock by the end of this year, as the Vienna proposals envisioned. Iran's foreign minister, Manoucher Mottaki, on Wednesday reiterated that Iran would not ship out its stockpile, "but can review swapping it simultaneously with nuclear fuel inside Iran." That's simply the latest in a series of counter-proposals floated through the media, none of which...
...late October, Ahmadinejad was sounding pretty confident. He portrayed the International Atomic Energy Agency's proposal for an enrichment of Iran's nuclear fuel outside the country as a win for the Islamic Republic. Furthermore, the Iranian President's rhetoric was unusually conciliatory towards the U.S. and its allies. "Today, the conditions are ripe for nuclear cooperation at international levels," he concluded. The proposed agreement in the Vienna talks, he declared, showed that the country was "moving in the right direction." (See pictures of IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei at work...
Days later, however, came the domestic backlash. Iranian Judiciary Chief Sadeq Larijani told reporters, "sending uranium out of Iran should be pondered upon and it seems that such an interaction on nuclear energy is not beneficial to Iran." His brother, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Ali Larijani, was also reportedly critical, saying the proposal as it stood was "neither logical nor legal." Parliament members began to publicly bash the Vienna deal. One member stated there is no guarantee in the proposed deal that the West "will fulfill their commitments" in the nuclear talks and that "Iran is right to distrust...
Ahmadinejad was also condemned by the leaders of Iran's opposition Green movement and their allies in the Militant Clergy Society, an important coalition of reformist Iranian politicians, who released a statement on November 4 that read, "we warn against current ploys to empty the [nuclear fuel] reserves obtained and ask relevant authorities to be insistent in defending this evident right." (See pictures from behind the scenes with opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi...