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Russia urges Iran to accept IAEA deal
 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) shakes hands with Russian ambassador Alexander Sadovnikov in Tehran. (AFP) |
TEHRAN — On Nov. 1, Russia's envoy to Tehran urged Iran to sign a nuclear fuel deal drafted by the UN, in a bid to resolve the controversy over its atomic drive, which he said lacks "complete transparency."
"This is not to trick Iran to take its low-enriched uranium out of its hands," Alexander Sadovnikov, Moscow's ambassador to Tehran, said in an interview with the official
"We believe that reaching this agreement and signing the technical contract to produce fuel for the Tehran reactor is beneficial to Iran and will help resolve the nuclear issue," he said.
The deal, if approved, will mean that Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) will be sent to Moscow for further enrichment and conversion into nuclear fuel, after which it will be returned for use in the Tehran reactor, which is continuously monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
This proposal has faced stiff opposition from top Iranian officials, who say it is a Western sleight of hand aimed at getting the Islamic republic to suspend its uranium enrichment work. Western powers, on the other hand, suspect Iran's uranium enrichment drive is aimed at making weapons, a charge strongly denied by Tehran.
Sadovnikov said, "We agree with the opinion of our partners, the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, who believe that Iran's nuclear programme, especially in some issues related to its past nuclear activities, lacks complete transparency.” Agreeing to the deal will eliminate the threat of further sanctions, which “Russian officials have repeatedly said will only complicate the situation and lead to a dead end," according to the ambassador.
Moscow recently said, however, that sometimes sanctions are "inevitable."
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