TEHRAN, 22 May 2005 — Iran said yesterday it had not considered a proposal that Russia enrich uranium for it — an idea floated as a way out of a deadlock in talks with the EU over Tehran’s nuclear program. Britain, France and Germany were due to resume talks with Iran next week, aiming to persuade it to abandon uranium enrichment in return for economic incentives.
Though Tehran has said repeatedly that it will not give up uranium enrichment, diplomats said one idea being floated was for Russia to temporarily enrich uranium for Iran. The diplomats, who declined to be named, said the proposal would buy time for the EU-Iran talks to continue. “We have not discussed it yet,” Ali Aghamohammadi of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council told Reuters.
Aghamohammadi also contested comments by diplomats that Iran proposed the idea of having Russia enrich uranium. “The idea was from Russia,” he said. But Moscow denied the idea had been proposed by Russia. “I do not have any information that that we have suggested supplying Iran with fuel,” a spokesman for the Russian Atomic Energy Agency said.
