LATEST: Regime Changes Line Again on Acid Attacks Against Women

UPDATE 1145 GMT: Iran’s Foreign Ministry has rejected the claim of unnamed US officials that it has “tentatively agreed to ship much of its stockpile” of uranium to Russia.

Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham denied the report, published in The New York Times, saying that Iranian negotiators will safeguard “the national interests and rights of the Iranian people” in the talks with the 5+1 Powers.

She asserted that the US officials were trying to influence the climate of next week’s talks between Iran and the 5+1 Powers in Oman.

The New York Times, fed by US officials, announces a breakthrough in Iran’s talks with the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, Germany, France, China, and Russia) for a comprehensive nuclear agreement:

Iran has tentatively agreed to ship much of its huge stockpile of uranium to Russia if it reaches a broader nuclear deal with the West….

Under the proposed agreement, the Russians would convert the uranium into specialized fuel rods for the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran’s only commercial reactor. Once the uranium is converted into fuel rods, it is extremely difficult to use them to make a nuclear weapon.

However, the Times quickly acknowledges that the proviso “if a broader nuclear deal is reached” is quite a large one. The central issue of Iran’s number and level of centrifuges for uranium enrichment has to be resolved, as do others like the status of the under-construction Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor and the duration of an agreement.

Nor does the Times indicate how much of Iran’s uranium stock would be shipped to Russia. In October 2009, talks in Geneva for third-party enrichment foundered over technical details, and in May 2010, the US rejected a proposal — announced in the Tehran Declaration of Iran, Brazil, and Turkey — to convert Iranian uranium in Turkey, arguing that not enough of Tehran’s fuel was being moved outside the country.

Iran and the 5+1 Powers face a deadline of November 24 for a comprehensive nuclear deal, before interim arrangements from last November expire.

Iranian officials said on Sunday that high-level talks will resume on November 11 in Oman, preceded by a two-day meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry, and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The leak to the Times may not be as much the hope of an agreement but the establishment of the US line, blaming Iran, if the deal is not reached:

The larger obstacle to reaching an agreement on the uranium may be the Iranians, the senior [US National Security Council] official said, because “what is less certain is whether Iran will accept the reasonable proposals” on the table, or “will continue to make excessive demands that are not aligned with its practical nuclear needs.”

There has been no reaction to the Times article from Iranian officials, who are celebrating the religious holiday of Ashura.

Regime Changes Line Again on Acid Attacks Against Women

Ahmadreza Radan, a senior Iranian police commander, has altered the regime line on the recent acid attacks against women in Isfahan.

Iranian officials said last week that 10 suspects had been detained for the attacks, but Radan said on Monday that no one has been arrested.

Radan said the series of attacks has been “blown out of proportion [which allowed] the enemy to take advantage of it”.

Iranian officials have responded to mass protests by insisting that the attacks had nothing to do with vigilante punishment of “un-Islamic” behavior. They have claimed that the assaults were instigated by foreign media.

Some Iranian journalists were detained — in one case for nine days — for coverage of the acid attacks and protests.