MOSCOW, February 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Iran will carry on peaceful atomic energy activity no matter what, Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei told Foreign Ministry staff members on Sunday.
“Despite the pressure the Islamic Republic is experiencing, it has achieved impressive results in nuclear research. The research will continue regardless the slanderous speculations started by certain countries, among them the United States, the United Kingdom and the Zionist regime. The research will continue as long as it takes Iran to achieve complete and scientific self-sufficiency,” Khamenei said.
He criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which condemned Iran last November for building a new nuclear site in Qum and recently expressed doubts about the peaceful nature of the Iranian atomic program.
“Some latest steps and reports of the Agency show that this international organization has a deficit of independence,” the Iranian supreme leader said. “The IAEA should not yield to the influence of the United States and some other countries, as this yielding does not add authority to the agency.”
The uranium enrichment in Iran causes serious concern about the actual target of the Iranian nuclear program, Russia, the United States and France said in a joint letter to Amano on February 16.
The letter criticized the Iranian production of higher enriched uranium.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said Tehran knew about the letter but noted that the letter did not contain any new proposals.
Russia will have a measured attitude to possible sanctions against Iran as long as the latter cooperates with the IAEA, Chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov told Itar-Tass on the same day.
“As long as Iran cooperates with the IAEA, our policy will be measured and cautious. I do not believe in the efficiency of sanctions. They do not work, as a rule,” Margelov said.
“The Russian stance is rather precise and clear. Being an Iranian neighbor, we want the Iranian nuclear program to be exclusively peaceful and strictly controlled by the IAEA. Not a single responsible politician in Russia is interested in the Iranian development of a bomb,” he said.
Iran is still ready for nuclear fuel exchange, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a February 16 press conference in Tehran.
“This is not a closed subject and we are ready for the exchange, even with the United States,” the president said.
The consultations go on, he remarked.
“We did not plan higher enriched uranium production because that was not expedient. However, our partners did not show goodwill and we had to tell them that we would have to produce the fuel ourselves,” he said. “The situation will change with the delivery of fuel,” he added.
The sides developed a general formula of nuclear fuel delivery for the Tehran research reactor producing medical isotopes. The sextet proposed to higher enrich Iranian uranium in Russia and to make fuel assemblies in France. Iran expressed its basic consent at first but then insisted on exchanging its uranium for ready fuel. No agreement was reached, and Iran launched higher enriched uranium production.
Higher enriched uranium production started in Natanz a week before to the president’s order. The 20% uranium is being manufactured for the Tehran research reactor, a maker of medical isotopes.
The decision of Iran to start higher-enriched uranium production disappointed Russia, which was traditionally reserved about proposed sanctions.
“The Iranian decision to start higher-enriched uranium production not only disagrees with resolutions of the UN Security Council and the IAEA Board of Governors but also deepens doubts about the Iranian sincere wish to lift the remaining international concerns about its nuclear program,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.
“Definitely, we are disappointed with the Iran step, which did not allow diplomats to agree on mutually acceptable ways of the fulfillment of the IAEA proposal of higher-enriched uranium fuel production for the Tehran research reactor outside Iran,” he said. “We are confident that further discussion of possible ways of the fulfillment of that project would have yielded results within a short time and become a major step towards the restoration of confidence in the exclusively peaceful atomic program of Iran and an appropriate atmosphere for the dialog.”
Russia does not rule out the drafting of a new UN Security Council resolution enacting sanctions against Iran, Nesterenko said.
“There is no work on the possible new sanctions against Iran now, but we cannot rule it out under the current circumstances,” he said.
“Russia is adherent to the two-track policy in settling the situation around the Iranian nuclear program. That implies efforts of the sextet (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) on negotiations with Tehran and sanctions if Iran does not act constructively,” he said.
“Russia is searching for additional options in the implementation of the October 1 agreements reached between Iranian representatives and the sextet political directors in Geneva,” Nesterenko said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow opposed sanctions that might be harmful for the country but did not rule out the UN Security Council measures due to the Iranian unwillingness of closer cooperation with the IAEA. “We are absolutely positive that sanctions per se can hardly bring desirable results. If such a proposal is made at the UN Security Council, we will scrutinize it very carefully,” the minister said.
“Russia has no doubts that Iran shares the same rights with other non-nuclear members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including the right to enrich uranium. However, Iran must comply with related commitments in order to use this right freely. In this case, it is necessary to answer all the remaining questions to the IAEA satisfaction,” Lavrov said.
“As no progress has been made and the Iranian administration has not responded to the constructive compromises, including the offer to supply fuel to the Tehran research reactor, I do not rule out that the UN Security Council may have to review the situation once again,” he said.
The UN Security Council has already applied sanctions to Iran in support of the IAEA requirements, Lavrov remarked.
The scale of possible sanctions on Iran will not be discussed at the Monday negotiations of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy, a high-ranking diplomat said on Friday.
“It would be premature to discuss the scale of possible sanctions,” he noted.
“The Russian president emphasized his readiness for cooperation with the sextet in New York last September. He also noted that sanctions were inevitable under certain circumstances, and the Russian readiness for joint work was important,” the diplomat said.
“I do not think that the presidents will have time to go into details [at the Paris meeting],” he said. “Possibly, they will discuss Russia-France interaction at the sextet and the United Nations at large. The leaders will compare their positions. In fact, there are no large disagreements between Russia and France.”
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