No Iran deal

A possible agreement that would resolve the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program appears to be in jeopardy after the country's foreign minister said Tehran will not accept the key provision of the proposal.

Manouchehr Mottaki said his country would not permit a uranium exchange to take place outside Iran. A deal struck last month would have Iran send its enriched uranium to its ally Russia where it could be processed into more highly enriched fuel rods that would be returned to Iran for use in a medical-research reactor.

For the international community, that would delay development of Iran's nuclear weapons capacity while at the same time lending support to Iran's claim that its nuclear program was meant for peaceful civilian purposes, not for nuclear weapons as feared by the United States and other world powers.

The exchange would delay a weapons program since it would take about a year to replace the uranium.

The peaceful uses claim, though, came in for further questioning after a United Nations report that a laboratory in a once-secret facility was too small to produce nuclear fuel for a commercial reactor.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had signaled support for the exchange, while other senior Iranian officials rejected it. Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, the ultimate power in Iran, has also said there would be no compromise with the West over Iran's nuclear program.

Foreign Minister Mottaki said Iran would accept a uranium exchange but only on Iranian soil, which Western powers may not endorse.

The conflicting positions out of Tehran may be intended as a negotiating ploy. The United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany on Friday urged Iran to accept the plan.

President Obama has given Iran until the end of the year before deciding on a fourth round of sanctions. Russia and China, which hold U.N. veto power, have not committed to sanctions.

The United States has also been consulting other Arab countries on possible responses to Iran. Lengthy delays only give Iran more time and further its intransigence.