Obama considers caving on Iran's Nuclear-Enrichment Program

The Obama administration is weighing possible solutions to the standoff over Iran's nuclear program that include provisions at odds with key Middle Eastern allies: allowing Tehran the right to maintain uranium-enrichment facilities on its soil. 

The administration stance, which President Barack Obama has hinted at broadly in recent weeks, comes as international negotiations aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear work resume Tuesday in Geneva.

Iran's new government says it wants to continue enriching uranium for civilian uses, and over the weekend declared it wouldn't ship nuclear materials out of the country. 

But key U.S. allies in the region, particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia, insist that Tehran should be denied any facilities to either enrich uranium or produce weapons-grade plutonium because of the potential for military uses, according to U.S. and Arab officials.

Members of Congress also are pressuring the White House to seek a complete dismantling of Iran's centrifuge machines. A group of 10 Republican and Democratic lawmakers wrote Mr. Obama on Friday to urge an increase in sanctions on Iran until it agrees to a complete enrichment freeze. U.N. resolutions call for Iran to stop enrichment until it addresses international concerns over any military dimension to its program. 

"Iran's first confidence-building action should be…immediate suspension of all enrichment activity," said the letter, which was released Monday by the office of Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr. Obama has left the U.S. position on the issue vague, repeatedly saying in recent weeks, including during his United Nations General Assembly speech, that Iran has the right to "access" peaceful nuclear energy. 

When asked Monday on the eve of the talks whether the administration is willing to accede to Tehran's chief demand, a U.S. negotiator was similarly noncommittal. "We are prepared to talk about what President Obama said in his address at the U.N. General Assembly, and that is that he respects the rights of the Iranian people to access a peaceful nuclear program," the senior U.S. official said. "What that is is a matter of discussion."

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