Moscow Comes Out for Iran's Returning to Moratorium

Itar-Tass:

Moscow reminded Tehran on Monday that the setting up of a joint uranium enrichment venture is an important but not the only condition for overcoming the crisis around the Iranian nuclear problem. Another crucial condition is the moratorium on uranium enrichment inside Iran.

The establishment of the joint venture is part of joint efforts to settle all the questions around the Iranian nuclear program. “Also, the moratorium on uranium enrichment inside Iran must stay in effect until IAEA experts clear out all the issues that arose in the past,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, in comments on the negotiations between head of Russia's Rosatom Federal Agency for Atomic Energy Sergei Kiriyenko and the Iranian officials.

Reporting on their results to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lavrov underlined that the Russian proposal "is not isolated, being a component of the possible package, with which all the members of the IAEA board of governors will have to agree." The IAEA board will meet in Vienna on March 6.

"We are working on specifying this idea and on its promotion, in close contact with the IAEA director general, in contact with our partners in "the European trio," as well as with the United States and China," the foreign minister said. READ MORE

Lavrov underlined that the negotiations with the Iranian leadership were focused on "our initiative to set up a joint venture in the Russian territory" to meet Iran's demand for fuel for its peaceful nuclear power generation sector.

The parties agreed to continue the consultations. "There’s a better understanding of how this idea may be realized in practice," Lavrov underlined.

Earlier, he told reporters that contacts with Iran would continue until the IAEA meeting on March 6.

Meanwhile, reports on Monday said an Iranian delegation, led by Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Hosseini-Tash, will arrive in the Russian capital later this week.

Ali Hosseini-Tash led consultations in Moscow at the Russian Security Council and the Foreign Ministry on February 20-21.

A well-informed Russian source stated that he was "cautiously optimistic" about the upcoming contacts.

"There have been no fundamental changes in Tehran's position. Iran ties the establishment of the joint venture to the right to conduct in its territory limited research and development activities in the nuclear field," the official said.

Russia cannot agree to such terms, because they are at variance with the IAEA's demands that Iran fully stop uranium enrichment, and the very idea of joint venture stops making sense.

The Russian proposal on creating a joint venture with Iran to enrich uranium for the needs of its nuclear power generation is aimed at easing tensions around the Iranian nuclear problem and restoring confidence in Tehran's nuclear program, the source told Tass.

Sergei Kiriyenko, who returned from Tehran on Monday, said there is still time to reach an agreement with Iran, before the IAEA board of governors meets on March 6.

There were experts in the delegation who conducted talks over Iran's nuclear program for two days, in order to hammer out a compromise solution which would secure Iran's right to develop peaceful nuclear power generation while at the same time providing a 100-percent guarantee of keeping the non-proliferation regime, Kiriyenko said.

It is a very complex issue; the negotiations have been difficult. It is important that the issue be resolved as part of all the themes discussed at the IAEA. A few issues still need to be coordinated.

Kiriyenko said he took with satisfaction the words by Iranian Vice-President Gholam Reza Agazadeh that Iran is ready, in principle, to set up a joint venture.

There is not much time left for further coordination, but some time is still available. "I'm sure it's possible," the Rosatom chief said.

A source in the Russian delegation described to Tass the headway made at the previous talks as "half a step."

At the same time, the Russian source believes that Iran can still accept the proposed terms: "there's a week before the session of the IAEA board of governors. Anything can happen."

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki made it clear at the talks in Tokyo that Tehran intends to continue uranium enrichment activities.

At a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso, he said a new suspension (of the uranium enrichment activities) was impossible, according to Japanese sources.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin told Itar-Tass that "Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday reiterated our position regarding the moratorium" on uranium enrichment."