Iran-Russia nuke talks called off – report

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

A meeting between a Russian delegation and Iranian officials in Tehran set to take place on Saturday was called off, the state-owned Iranian news agency Mehr reported on Friday.

The report offered no reason as to why the Russian delegation was not coming to Tehran, and said only that the trip had been “postponed”. READ MORE

Members of the delegation included Moscow’s deputy secretary of the National Security Council and Deputy Foreign Minister, it said.

The Russian government has proposed that the Islamic Republic carry out uranium enrichment on Russian soil, where it would be under strict international monitoring.

Iran has insisted it would not accept any proposal that would deny it the full nuclear fuel cycle. Senior Iranian officials have repeatedly said any agreement must not exclude uranium enrichment inside Iran.

“Iran will not accept any proposal that calls only for mere enrichment inside Russia, but will consider one that offers a complementary and workable plan”, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

Analysts say Tehran’s approach to the Russian proposal has been to buy time and prevent Russia from joining the United States and European powers in the bid to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council.