Russia called on Iran yesterday to abide by an accord to enrich uranium abroad under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Russian foreign ministry said.
Moscow issued the appeal in a meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Iran’s ambassador to Russia, Seyed Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi, the ministry said in a statement.
“The Russian side stressed the need to observe the principals of the basic deal reached at negotiations on this problem in Geneva on October 1,” it said.
The Geneva talks of Iran and six world powers -- Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Russia and China -- laid the groundwork for an IAEA-brokered proposal under which Iran would ship out most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium for further processing by Russia.
But Iran has yet to respond and appears reluctant to let go of its uranium aftern weeks of international talks aimed at an agreement that would allay Western fears that Tehran wants to use its nuclear energy programme to build an atomic bomb.
Russia has the strongest ties with Iran of any major power, and its capacity to provide technical help for the Iranian nuclear drive is seen by some analysts as giving it an unmatched power of leverage in Tehran. |
