By Anoush Maleki

Iran said on Tuesday that it would decide on a nuclear deal that envisages the country shipping low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia to be converted into metal fuel rods for a medical research reactor by Friday, October 30.

Under the deal, proposed by the UN nuclear watchdog and supported by France, Russia and the United States at the talks in Vienna on October 19, Iran would have to ship out at once 80 percent of its domestically-produced stockpile, amounting to 1,200 kg of uranium enriched to under 3.5 percent, by the end of the year.

An Iranian diplomat close to the negotiations said officials in Tehran were working out the details of the pact before announcing their final decision. He said the country is likely to accept the general framework of the deal, but it also demands a step-by-step approach to the shipment.

"Iran as a uranium buyer knows best how much uranium, enriched to a level of 19.75 percent, it needs [to run its Tehran reactor]; based on this argument, it will raise certain issues with this proposal," the diplomat told Press TV.

This will not go well with world powers.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has led and represented the West in nuclear talks with Tehran for years, quickly responded to the remarks by saying there was no need for “fundamental changes” to the deal.

"The deal was a good deal," Solana told a news conference after an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg. "I don't think in principle it requires fundamental changes, it is difficult to know what 'important changes' mean."

The French government, which has been stymied to directly conduct nuclear business with Iran for failing to honor its previous nuclear commitments, has made clear that the uranium must be sent in one shipment.

The world powers accuse Iran of saving up its low-enriched uranium to make an atom bomb, if the government one day decides to change course and steer the program towards military means.

Moreover, the Obama administration, which has sought to distance itself from its predecessor on all grounds including Iran's nuclear program, has based its strategy of diplomacy with Tehran on this deal.

If, the parties to the deal do not accept the new conditions set by Tehran, the deal, which is more important to the West than to Iran, may not go through.

Iran, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a cooperative member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is entitled to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. This includes producing fuel for its under-construction nuclear power plants as well as providing fuel for its research reactor in Tehran.

Therefore, if the deal goes belly up, Iran is likely to produce the fuel in the Natanz complex or the newly-announced and still under-construction enrichment facility in Fordo, southwest of the capital, Tehran.

The real frustration, however, will be felt by the world powers.

The United States and France — which are part of the Vienna deal — as well as the UK, Germany will lose the golden opportunity to continue negotiations with Iran to resolve their doubts and investigate the allegations they have repeated for years about Tehran and its nuclear plans.

They, then, would have to push for sanctions against Tehran. The United Nations Security Council will become the scene of heated discussions on how to punish the Middle Eastern oil-supplier. And the splits in the so-called untied international community against Iran will provide never-ending material for the media.

Israel, meanwhile, will continue to gear up for what its leadership has threatened to carry out for years.

President Obama, already struggling with two exhausting wars in far-away countries and faced with an ailing economy with no real salvation in sight, will be drawn into an unwanted conflict with a country that is on no scale comparable with Iraq and Afghanistan.

By Friday, the Iranians will make their decision on the deal. The diplomat speaking to Press TV said sending out the country's entire uranium stockpile is against Iran's national interests.

The truth is that there are no guarantees that the fuel would be shipped to Iran without world powers trying to take control of it and use it as leverage against the Ahmadinejad government.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the Parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, told the Iranian Students News Agency on Tuesday that the majority of lawmakers in Majlis believe the best option is to buy processed nuclear fuel rather than shipping Iran's uranium for processing.

Russia, which has been working closely with Iran in the field of nuclear technology over the past decade, helping the country in building its first power plant in the city of Bushehr, may very well be ready to sell the country the processed fuel.

But as the whole deal is supposed to be a trust-building measure, world powers need to make sure the outcome of the deal is what is desired by all parties.

Compromise has to be made and a deal must be reached.