Iran has reached a "basic" agreement with Russia on jointly
enriching uranium, officials said on Sunday but there was no
immediate sign that it would suspend home-grown enrichment to allay
fears that it is developing nuclear weapons.
It was unclear what this basic agreement involved and both
Russian and Iranian officials identified serious obstacles to a
fully fledged deal.
It principally concerned a suspension of Teheran's home-grown
uranium enrichment work, the main demand of Western powers who are
threatening to press for UN sanctions.
The original Russian proposal had been for Iran's uranium to be
enriched in Russia to defuse suspicions that Iran might divert some
nuclear fuel into a weapons program.
However, Iran has always insisted upon its right to enrich the
uranium it mines in its central desert on its own soil, and it was
unclear how the original Russian proposal could be tailored to
satisfy Iran's demand.
"Regarding this joint venture, we have reached a basic
agreement. Talks to complete this package will continue in the
coming days in Russia," Iranian nuclear chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh
told reporters in the southern Iranian port of Bushehr.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom,
speaking at a joint news conference with Aghazadeh, said Iran still
had to take "serious steps" before the deal could be completed.
He was not specific about what these steps would be, but an
unnamed Russian official in Bushehr told the Interfax news agency
that the deal could only go ahead if Iran suspended its own uranium
enrichment.
Teheran has repeatedly refused to do this.
Aghazadeh also stipulated that Iran would be setting an
unspecified "precondition" to the deal.
One EU diplomat said this precondition was almost certain to be
Teheran insisting upon its right to enrich its own uranium.
"Their idea of accepting the Russian proposal is to be able to
enrich in Russia and Iran, not just Russia," he said on condition
of anonymity.
Europe and Washington have said they could not accept such a
compromise.
Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign relations committee in
Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, said the
chances of an agreement were about 50-50.
"(Teheran) is now using the tactic of dragging out talks as long
as possible. I do not think we can expect Iran to clarify its
position any time soon. I would rather suggest that this will not
happen before March 6," he told Interfax.
March 6 is the date when the board of the United Nations'
watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meets in
Vienna to discuss the IAEA's latest report on Iran's nuclear
program.
(China Daily February 27, 2006)
