Iran's FM says visit to Russia, uranium plan still on agenda
11/11/2006 17:09 TEHRAN, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - Iran's foreign minister said Saturday his visit to Moscow for talks on Tehran's nuclear program is still on the agenda.
Manouchehr Mottaki's visit planned for Thursday was postponed to give way to the Islamic Republic's influential chief nuclear negotiator.
Ali Larijani is currently in Moscow holding talks with Russia's leadership, while the countries involved in the long-running dispute aimed at dissuading Iran from enriching uranium are discussing sanctions against the defiant Islamic Republic.
Mottaki also said that Tehran is ready to consider a proposal to enrich uranium on Russian soil, but refused to halt enrichment activities at home.
"The Islamic republic wants to enrich uranium domestically, but this does not exclude cooperation on uranium enrichment with other countries," he said.
Earlier this year, Moscow offered to set up a joint venture and an international consortium for the enrichment of uranium for Iran's civilian nuclear program. Both proposals were intended to assuage Western concerns that nuclear enrichment inside Iran may lead to the country obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Mottaki said the joint venture and the international consortium are both on the Iranian government's agenda.
Russia and Iran have held three rounds of talks on the issue so far this year, but no deal has been reached yet.
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