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Russia welcomes Iran`s nuclear progress: official

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Dec 12, IRNA -- Chairman of the Russian Federation Council, 
Sergei Mironov, reiterated here Sunday his country`s position in 
acknowledging Iran`s right to peaceful nuclear technology. 
"Iran has joined the NPT and has the right to peaceful nuclear 
energy; we welcome progress of the nuclear science and technology in 
Iran in accordance with (international) laws," he said in a meeting 
with secretary of Iran`s Guardian Council, Ahmad Jannati. 
After getting an earful from Jannati on a host of issues, 
including US efforts to set up a new world order, Mironov said 
Moscow sees eye in eye with Iran on those issues. 
The Iranian official touched on the American policy to rule the 
world, saying, "This policy is threatening the entire world nations 
and the Americans have practically shown that they are not bound by 
any law." 
"The Americans seek to control all economic resources of the 
regional countries, but they cannot help (provoking) all-out 
resistance against this imperialistic attitude," Jannati added. 
Mironov said, "Our views are the same as yours and we don`t 
accept a unipolar world either, and believe that such an order is 
not beneficial to the world people." 
The two officials praised the two countries` ties, with Jannati 
describing Russia as a `friend and neighbor` of Iran and sharing 
common interests with the country. 
"Ties between Iran and Russia are improving and there is need to 
bolster them even further," the secretary of the Iranian supervisory 
council said. 
Mironov said the two countries enjoy `high level` ties in the 
political, cultural and social areas, but trade relations are still 
lagging. 
"I hope we will achieve this important objective (in promoting 
trade ties) in the near future," he said. 
The two countries` trade volume was put at 1.4 billion dollars 
last year. 
Russia is helping Iran build the country`s first nuclear reactor 
in the southern port city of Bushehr on a 800-million-dollar contract 
to generate power. 
On Saturday, Mironov said Tehran and Moscow are working out 
technical details of an agreement to bring the power plant on line in 
2006. 
The power plant, the subject of an international media hype, has 
seen several dates for its operation pushed back from its initial 
target of 2003. 
In August, Iran said the plant would become operational in 
October 2006, a year behind the schedule. 
Mironov, who arrived in Tehran Saturday for a one-day visit, 
stressed Iran`s right to peaceful nuclear technology in the framework 
of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of which the country 
is a signatory. 
Once operational, the Bushehr power plant is projected to 
generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity, 6,000 megawatts less than the
target which Iran has set to produce by 2021 in nuclear power 
plants. 
But, its construction has been dogged by a whole slew of 
`complexities`, primarily the deal on the return of spent fuel and 
its costs. 
This has raised the ire of certain circles inside Iran amid 
suspicion that Russia could be trying to use the project as a 
bargaining chip in its political horse-trading with the United 
States. 
A senior Iranian official sent a veiled warning to Russia 
recently, making it clear that the Iranians would judge the Russians 
by their performance in Bushehr. 
Washington has been pressuring Moscow to pull out of the project, 
alleging that Iran could use it as a front to build an atomic bomb. 
Russia, instead, has repeatedly shrugged off US pressures and 
vowed to continue its cooperation with Iran as long as the country 
complies with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 
Moscow also opposes US efforts to report Tehran to the UN Security
Council for possible sanctions. 
Meanwhile, several Iranian officials have come forth to stress 
that the most sticking point in the two countries` cooperation is 
their differences over the costs. 
They have stressed that a contract for the return of the spent 
fuel has been finalized. 
The two countries have set the deadline for Russia`s delivery of 
nuclear fuel for the power plant to Iran at the end of 2005, 
according to the deputy head of Iran`s Atomic Energy Organization, 
Assadollah Sabouri. 
Construction of the Bushehr power plant has already cost Iran 
billions of dollars. The German firm Siemens and its subsidiary 
Kraftwerke Union (KWU) began work on the plant in 1974, but stopped 
following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. 
At that time, Unit-One was 90 percent complete, with 60 percent of
the equipment installed, and Unit-Two was 50 percent complete. 
During the 1980 to 1988 imposed war with Iraq, the Bushehr 
reactors were repeatedly targeted by Iraq, which bombed the plant at 
least six times. 
Starting in the mid-1980s, Iran approached several nuclear 
suppliers about the possibility of completing the Bushehr-1 reactor. 
A consortium of West German, Spanish and Argentine companies bid 
to complete it in the late 1980s, but the deal was never completed 
owing to US pressure. 
In a similar deal, Iran signed a protocol in February 1990 with 
Spanish companies to complete the plant and supply the reactor`s fuel,
but they later canceled the deal citing US political pressure. 
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