Key U.S. allies consider Iran deal

Key U.S. allies are debating the idea of a nuclear compromise with Iran that would call for only a partial freeze of Tehran’s uranium enrichment program -- a stance that could put them at odds with Washington, officials said Friday.

The officials -- U.S. and European diplomats and government employees -- said the deliberations among senior British, French and German decision-makers were preliminary and that no conclusions had been drawn.

Germany was supportive, France opposed and Britain noncommittal, they said.

“Nothing is on paper,” said one European diplomat.

An American official said that “there is some truth” to the reports of the discussions among the British, French and Germans.

The U.S. has allied with Britain, France and Germany in a four-year campaign to contain what they fear are Iranian ambitions to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is solely for electricity.

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, meanwhile, said the Islamic Republic had agreed to provide him with answers within two months on past suspicious atomic activities.

The Iranian proposal, to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, came on the eve of a new round of talks between Tehran’s negotiator, Ali Larijani, and Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.

But Larijani suggested the offer was conditional on reaching a “political understanding.” That was apparent shorthand for a broader deal that would allow for the start of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany without the present precondition of a complete enrichment freeze.