Obama and Medvedev press Tehran to sign up to nuclear proposal

After talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Singapore, US President Barack Obama has said "time is running out" for Iran to sign on to a deal to ship its enriched uranium out of the country for further processing. "Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran appears to have been unable to say yes to what everyone acknowledges is a creative and constructive approach," Obama declared.

Medvedev expressed hope that Iran could be persuaded to sign the deal proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in October. Failing that, however, Medvedev said other options remained on the table. In the past, the Russian leader said further sanctions against Iran were possible if Tehran did not open its nuclear program to inspections and thus prove that it was not covertly seeking to build an atomic bomb.

Iranian politicians have rejected the proposed deal but the government in Tehran says it was still considering it. Referring to the United States, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on Sunday: "The recent actions of this country, presenting unimportant and irrational proposals in the nuclear issue which they have called just and fair, all indicate that the alleged change was nothing but a deceitful symbol aimed at deceiving naive politicians.