MOSCOW, 19 February 2005 — Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday he was convinced Iran was not trying to build a nuclear weapon and that Russia would press ahead with nuclear cooperation with the Islamic Republic. Putin’s defense of Iran, where Russia is building a nuclear power plant, comes in the face of US concerns that Tehran could be using Russian know-how to covertly build a nuclear weapon.
“The latest steps by Iran convince Russia that Iran indeed does not intend to produce nuclear weapons and we will continue to develop relations in all sectors, including peaceful atomic energy,” Putin told Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani. “We hope Iran will strictly stick to all agreements with Russia or the international community,” Putin said at the start of talks with Rohani at the Kremlin.
The United States has criticized Moscow for pressing ahead with construction of a 1,000-megawatt reactor at Bushehr in southern Iran. Russia’s top nuclear officials are due to travel to Iran next week to finalize the final technicalities of its start-up later this year. The question of Russia’s nuclear ties with Iran is certain to figure in a summit between Putin and US President George W. Bush in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Feb. 24.
Bush said on Thursday he would use diplomacy to convince Iran it would be unacceptable to develop nuclear weapons. He said he would use his trip next week to Europe to develop “joint” strategies to deal with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran has denied it seeks nuclear weapons and says it wants atomic technology solely to generate electricity.
Rohani, addressing Putin, said Moscow could play a significant role in Iran’s talks with Britain, France and Germany — the EU states taking the lead in the search for a diplomatic solution. “We think that Russia’s role can be useful in this process,” he said. “Under current international circumstances ... development of ties with Russia is in the interests of both our countries and will be a factor of stability in the region,” he said.
Putin said he had been invited by the Iranian leadership to visit Tehran and was “preparing for this visit,” Interfax news agency reported.
Dates for Putin’s trip to Iran would be set later, he said. Putin’s meeting with Rohani came a day after both countries announced that a crucial agreement obliging Iran to return all spent nuclear fuel to Russia would be signed on Feb. 26.
An agreement on the return to Russia of spent nuclear fuel has been the key impediment to completion of an $800-million project led by Russia to build the plant in Bushehr, southern Iran. Moscow and the West both fear Iran could reprocess the spent fuel delivered from Russia by upgrading it through centrifuges to either make a weak “dirty bomb” or an actual nuclear weapon. The United States and Israel had jointly launched an international campaign against the Bushehr project, but Moscow countered that it would make sure the plant remained harmless to protect its own security interests.
