Russia offers US to join construction of NPS in Iran: minister
IRNA
Moscow, May 30, Itar-Tass/ACSNA/IRNA -- Russia is offering the United
States to pool efforts in building the Bushehr nuclear power plant in
Iran, Alexander Rumyantsev, the Russian Minister of Nuclear Energy,
told Itar-Tass in an exclusive interview.
"We have suggested this to our American colleagues several times
over during the discussions at the level of experts, but their only
answer so far was that the matter should be thought over," the
minister added.
In Rumyantsev's opinion, there is "enough place for everybody" at
Bushehr, since Iran wants to have a plant of six generating units,
while Russia has signed only a one billion U.S. dollar-contract to
build one unit.
"The developed countries are not only able, but obliged to help
the other countries that are honouring the regime of non-proliferation
and fulfilling all the recommendations of the International Atomic
Energy Agency," the minister noted.
Russia and Iran are "violating nothing" in the work to put up the
Bushehr plant, the minister noted. According to Rumyantsev, IAEA
experts are carrying out verifications in Bushehr "practically every
week", and not a single fact was found to prove the plant's unpeaceful
purpose.
"We have been openly and frankly discussing this subject with the
United States for almost ten years, but for some unknown reasons it
has only been criticising us all this time," the minister added.
"We shall be able to say that the non-proliferation regime is
being violated only when we have facts to prove it," Rumyantsev
stressed, moving to wait for the June meeting of the Board of
Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
For its part, the United States intends to put off indefinitely
the revision of its policy vis-a-vis Iran, an official of the U.S.
administration told Reuters on condition of anonymity. He said the
meeting of high-ranking U.S. presidential advisers on foreign policy
and security, which was to decide this problem, did not take place on
Thursday.
According to the said official, this postponement was due to
disagreements on the problem between the Defence Department and the
Office of the U.S. Vice-President, on the one hand, which are adhering
to tougher positions, and the State Department and the White House
National Security Council - on the other.
The U.S. Defence Department is calling for large-scale secret
operations to overthrow the ruling regime in Iran, regarding this as
the only way to prevent Tehran from developing its nuclear weapons.
Reporting on this, the ABC television notes that such plans are
not new, but they are regarded as a probable political decision, which
could be made as a result of the revision of the U.S. policy vis-a-vis
Iran, which is now under way in Washington.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged in his Tuesday
statement to the Council on International Affairs in New York that
such debates were now under way in the American capital.
However, U.S. President George Bush told the French televisions
before leaving for his current international tour that one should not
think he was engrossed in the Iranian problem.
/SF/AR
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