Moscow Offers to Move Iranian Enrichment

The Associated Press:

Russia's Foreign Ministry said it made a formal offer to Iran on Saturday to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia, raising diplomatic pressure on Tehran to accept the Western-backed plan it has so far rejected.

The Russian Embassy in Tehran on Saturday handed over a formal note containing the offer to the Iranian authorities, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The note said that "an earlier Russian offer to Iran to establish a joint Russian-Iranian enrichment venture in Russia remains valid," the ministry added. READ MORE

Iran has insisted that it would enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel domestically despite international efforts to curb its atomic program.

Iran says its nuclear program is only aimed at producing electricity, but the United States accuses Iran of running a covert atomic weapons program. Washington is pushing for Tehran to be brought before the United Nations Security Council, where it could face economic sanctions for violating a nuclear arms control treaty.

Germany, France and Britain have suggested shifting Iran's enrichment activities to Russia, where nuclear material would be enriched only to fuel levels and not to weapons grade. But Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Atomic Organization of Iran, has dismissed the offer as unacceptable earlier this month.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday's formal proposal represented a "Russian contribution into the search for mutually acceptable solutions in the context of settling the situation around the Iranian nuclear program by political and diplomatic means."