Mohammad Javad Larijani, a foreign affairs adviser to
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said in New York on Tuesday that the
Islamic Republic was willing to share its nuclear technology with neighboring
countries, suggesting it could help Turkey build an atomic power plant.
"Iran is an important neighboring country. We have oil
and gas trade, but cooperation in the area of nuclear power stations is not
currently on our agenda," Yildiz told reporters.
The UN nuclear watchdog reported last week that Iran
appeared to have worked covertly on designing atomic bombs and may be
continuing research to that end, and Tehran is under UN sanctions over its
disputed nuclear activity.
Larijani said that Iran was ready to share its nuclear
capability with neighbors and friendly countries in the region.
"Turkey is for years trying to have a nuclear power
plant but no country in the West is willing to build that for them,"
Larijani said, adding that Iran did not have a "concrete proposal"
for nuclear cooperation with Turkey or another state.
Energy-hungry Turkey has ambitious plans to build up a civil
nuclear power capability and has been in talks with Russia and Japan about it.
Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is among the firms interested in a Turkish
deal.
Last year Turkey awarded Russia's Atomstroyexport a contract
to build its first nuclear power plant at Akkuyu on the country's Mediterranean
coast.
Larijani described last week's International Atomic Energy
Agency report on Iranian nuclear activity as "a disgrace to the
professionalism of this institution." Iran says it wants nuclear energy
only for electricity, not for bombs.
In his comments to reporters, Yildiz also said Turkey would
sign an oil exploration deal next week and that the country was in talks with
Shell Oil Co. on the matter.
