VIENNA –
Iran has tried in vain to prevent a Western push for a resolution against it at an International Atomic Energy Agency board meeting this week by offering to cap its stock of uranium just shy of weapons grade, the U.N. nuclear watchdog and diplomats said on Tuesday.
One of two confidential IAEA reports to member states said Iran had offered not to expand its stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, near the roughly 90% of weapons grade, and had made preparations to do that.
The offer is conditional, however, on Western powers abandoning their push for a resolution against Iran at this week’s quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors over its lack of cooperation with the agency, diplomats said, adding that the push was continuing regardless.