Official: Iran Willing to Expand N. Cooperation with Russia

30 August 2011 | 20:25 Code : 15901 Latest Headlines
TEHRAN (FNA)- Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi announced that the country is willing to further develop its cooperation with Russia in building more nuclear power plants.
Tehran has offered a proposal to Moscow on the building of new nuclear plants using Iranian-made nuclear fuel, Abbasi who is also Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran said.

Referring to the 'step by step' proposal of Russia to settle the standoff between Iran and the West, he said any nuclear proposal either step by step or all at once must guarantee Iran's nuclear rights.

He added, "I don't think Iran-G5+1 talks can resolve the issue in near future. Any partner who wants to get involved on talks on Iran's nuclear issue and who makes a proposal in this regard should recognize Tehran's nuclear rights, at first."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran would study Russia's "step by step" plan on Iran's nuclear issue," the official told the Islamic republic news agency.

Nuclear issue is just an excuse for the West to put pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran and if it is resolved, the US and its allies would impose more sanctions against Iran under the pretext of human rights violations, Abbasi stated.

Abbasi made the remarks, referring to a July 13 'step-by-step' approach towards Iran's nuclear program proposed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that offers the Islamic Republic to address the questions raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a step-by-step manner.

According to the proposed plan, Iran can revive negotiations to alleviate individual concerns of the IAEA about its nuclear activities and be rewarded along the way by the partial removal of sanctions.

The approach would start out with the easiest questions and move on to more complicated ones that would require a longer time for a response, according to Lavrov.

Iran says that according to the modality plan agreed by the Islamic Republic and the IAEA in 2007, the agency should close Iran's nuclear dossier since Tehran has addressed and resolved all issues of contention.