VIENNA, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Iranian officials said they expected to meet again with Western representatives Wednesday to work on a deal about the future of Iran's nuclear program.
The latest round of talks between representatives of Iran, the United States, Russia, France and the International Atomic Energy Agency ended on an upbeat note, said IAEA officials, while Western participants said Iran fell short of the tentative accord reached earlier in October, CNN reported Tuesday.
At issue is Iran's uranium enrichment program. Tehran says its nuclear work is solely for peaceful purposes, but many in the international community accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons capability.
Earlier this month, Iran and Western leaders agreed in principle that low-enriched uranium produced in Iran would be shipped to third-party counties for further enrichment and then returned for use in medical research and treatment.
However, Iran opened two days of talks Monday with a veiled threat that it would pull back from the agreement unless the West agreed to Iranian demands to provide it with new fuel, The New York Times reported.
"This was opening-day posturing," one participant in Monday's talks told the Times. "The Iranians are experienced at this, and you have to expect that their opening position isn't going to be the one you want to hear."
