Iran finds Russian nuclear compromise unacceptable, newspapers report

Iran finds Russian nuclear compromise unacceptable, newspapers report

Iran finds Russian nuclear compromise unacceptable, newspapers report

Henry Meyer
Canadian Press

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

MOSCOW (AP) - Iran is not ready to accept Russia's proposal aimed at resolving the international crisis over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program, Russian newspapers reported Wednesday, citing Iranian officials.

The two countries' negotiators on Tuesday completed two days of inconclusive talks in Moscow on a Russian offer to enrich uranium for Tehran to avert suspicions that the Iranians could divert the nuclear fuel for atomic weapons. The Vedomosti daily quoted an official close to the Iranian delegation as saying that Iran insisted on the right to conduct its own enrichment activities.

"There are no reasons at this stage to resume dialogue," said the official, who the newspaper did not identify.

An Iranian diplomat cited by the Vremya Novostei daily said Iran wanted Russia to produce large-scale enriched uranium for the country, but needed a domestic uranium enrichment program to create "the basis for independence in the nuclear sphere." The diplomat also was not identified.

Tehran's top negotiator, Ali Hosseinitash, labelled the Moscow meeting "positive and constructive," but some Russians voiced concern that Iran was using the proposed Kremlin compromise to stall for time and avert international sanctions.

The Russian plan, backed by the United States and the European Union, is seen as the final opportunity to ease international concerns over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons drive. Tehran has insisted on its right to maintain domestic enrichment despite international calls for it to stop.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, could start a process leading to punishment by the UN Security Council, which has the authority to impose sanctions on Iran, at a March 6 meeting.

The Iranian official cited by Vedomosti said that at the talks, Iran demanded that the Russian enrichment plan function for only three to five years and insisted on the Iranian right to conduct the initial stages of uranium enrichment on its own territory.

But the Russian side, the official said, was adamant that the Iranians restore the freeze on enrichment broken last month when they resumed small-scale activities, and that Iran content itself with paying Russia for supplies of enriched fuel for its atomic power facilities.

Russia's atomic agency chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, who is to visit Iran Thursday for further talks, said after the Moscow round of negotiations that Russia would do everything to help Iran resolve the nuclear dispute.

But a senior Russian legislator expressed frustration.

"Unfortunately, Iran so far has not shown sufficient good will," Konstantin Kosachev, head of the lower house of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said Tuesday.

Russia, which has strong economic ties to Iran, is building the theocracy's first nuclear power station and is anxious to avoid sanctions and eager to win prestige by helping find a solution.

China, which like Russia has resisted strong measures against Iran, joined calls on Tuesday for Tehran to freeze enrichment. Both countries have the power to block sanctions against Tehran as veto-wielding members of the Security Council.

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb. Iran says it is pursuing peaceful nuclear energy but Western countries fear it is seeking an atomic weapon.