“We expect (the nuclear power plant) will be launched by August if everything goes according to plan,” Sergei Kiriyenko, chief of Rosatom, the state-run nuclear corporation, told journalists.
“The resolution on Iran being drawn up will not affect these plans,” he added.
The United Nations Security Council is exploring options to impose sanctions against Iran for the country’s alleged clandestine uranium enrichment program. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but the US and others believe it’s pursuing a nuclear weapons bid.
Iran has pursued a civilian nuclear program by erecting a reactor in Bushehr near the Arabian Gulf.
Work on the plant began over 35 years ago by a German company that eventually abandoned the project after the Islamic revolution in 1979. Russia agreed to complete the project in the 1990s but has delayed the launching due to numerous problems, including disagreements over payment and where to store used fuel.
Russia delivered fuel for the plant, which will have 1,000 megawatts of output, more than two years ago.
Russian nuclear officials have said they will establish a joint venture with Iran to jointly operate the Bushehr plant for at least the first year.
Meanwhile, an Iranian Parliament member said on Thursday that Iran could cancel its agreement with Turkey and Brazil to transfer some of its uranium abroad if the UN Security Council approves a new round of sanctions against it.
Brazil and Turkey brokered a surprise deal this week in which Iran agreed to send some low-enriched uranium abroad in return for fuel rods for a medical research reactor. The first batch is due to arrive in Turkey within a month.
Despite the deal, Washington has circulated a draft sanctions resolution, agreed to by all five permanent UN Security Council members after months of negotiation.
“If (the West) issues a new resolution against Iran, we will not be committed to Tehran’s statement and despatching fuel outside Iran will be canceled,” prominent lawmaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar was quoted as saying by Iran’s Mehr news agency.
“Major powers along with the UN Security Council have reached consensus about Iran and it is highly probable that in the near future the fourth round of resolutions becomes operational against Iran,” Bahonar added.
The new sanctions would target Iranian banks and call for inspection of vessels suspected of carrying cargo related to Iran’s nuclear or missile programs.
Iran has previously dismissed the draft resolution as lacking legitimacy and unlikely to come to pass. It says its atomic ambitions are purely non-military and refuses to suspend uranium enrichment.
“The Americans will take their wish to harm the Iranian nation to their graves,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling military officials on Thursday by state news agency IRNA.
France expects a majority of UN Security Council members to vote for new sanctions against Iran, which would stop Russia selling ground-to-air missiles to the Islamic republic, diplomats in Paris said Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said only three of the 15 members of the Security Council were holding out.
Diplomats named the three as Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon, whose government includes pro-Iranian politicians.
