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After days of discussion and controversy, Iran is expected to accept an amended deal to transfer most of its nuclear material outside the country to be transformed into fuel for a peaceful medical reactor. The move was reported by state television only days after the IAEA had set a deadline last Friday. Iranian leaders had told agency chief Mohamed El Baradei that they were, “considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light.” The sticking points of the draft proposal supported by the United States, France and Russia, reportedly centered on Iran’s declared stockpile of low-enriched uranium. Though full details of the U.N. plan are not yet public, if agreed to, it would require Tehran send a major bulk shipment of its stockpile to Russia before the end of this year for further enrichment. France would then receive the uranium in order to process it into fuel rods to be returned to Tehran for the purposes of powering a medical reactor. The shipment of Iranian uranium abroad is said to ensure the peaceful intentions of the country’s nuclear energy ambitions. In testing the flexibility of the plan, Iran is said to be seeking to purchase enriched uranium rather than ship its supply abroad. It also may try to negotiate smaller allotments of its stockpile to be sent to Russia and France.

GUEST: Gareth Porter, investigative historian and journalist, a writer for Inter-Press Service and author of the book Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam