Russia: Iran wants more reactors
Head of Russia's nuclear agency says Tehran looking to purchase more Russian-made nuclear rectors; claims sides working on agreement
While Western countries are looking to exacerbate sanctions against Iran, Russia, who built the Islamic Republic’s first nuclear power plant in Bushehr, is already working on future cooperation.
Russia’s nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko said Thursday that Tehran is interested in purchasing more Russian-built reactors.
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Kiriyenko, who heads the Russian Rosatom nuclear agency told a Cabinet session chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that his agency was working an agreement.
Russin and Iranian officials have discussed building more reactors in the past, but Kiriyenko’s latest statement comes amid Western calls for sanctions on Tehran over the IAEA report released Tuesday that details suspected nuclear weapons-related advances.
'Serious doubts'
Russia has firmly rejected imposing any new sanctions on Iran and called for dialogue and criticized the report, saying it would reduce hopes for dialogue with Tehran and aimed to scuttle the chances for a diplomatic solution.
"We have serious doubts about the justification for steps to reveal contents of the report to a broad public, primarily because it is precisely now that certain chances for the renewal of dialogue between the 'sextet' of international mediators and Tehran have begun to appear," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the release of the report on Tuesday.
Ali Bagheri, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council who was in Moscow to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said the IAEA report was aimed at derailing Russia’s efforts to find a diplomatic solution.
Bagheri said Tehran does not believe Israel will follow through on threats to carry out a military strike, but warned that Iran would retaliate.
“If the Zionist regime allows this mistake to happen, then this will probably be not just an issue of Israel’s legitimacy but its sheer existence,” he told reporters.
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