December 29, 2005, 10:19 Politics

Iran will enrich itself in Russia

Viktor Sumskoy Iran has backed down on the nuclear issue. Tehran is ready to “enthusiastically” think about Russia’s proposals for overcoming the crisis, although at the beginning of the week it stated the opposite.

Iran intends to “seriously and enthusiastically” consider Russia's proposal for joint uranium enrichment. This, as Reuters reports, was stated the day before by the deputy head of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, the head of the Iranian delegation at the negotiations with the Eurotroika, Yavad Vaedi. “The Russian side’s proposal to create a joint venture for uranium enrichment on Russian territory will be considered, taking into account the Russian-Iranian agreement on the supply of nuclear fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant with the subsequent return of spent nuclear fuel to Russia,” he said. However, Vaedi outlined some conditions. According to the official, “the participation of Iranian specialists in this project will be of fundamental importance.” Vaedi’s statement clearly did not come by chance, but on the eve of negotiations with the EU, which will take place at the beginning of the new year.

Iran, therefore, almost agrees, although just at the beginning of the week Tehran completely rejected Moscow’s proposal.

Last Tuesday, the Iranian Fars agency reported, citing an anonymous source in the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , why the Iranian government does not want to agree to Moscow’s peace plan. This happened immediately after on December 24, the Russian Foreign Ministry handed over to the Iranian side through the Russian Embassy in Tehran an official note in which “it was confirmed that the Russian proposal previously transmitted to Iran to create a joint Russian-Iranian enterprise for uranium enrichment on Russian territory remains in force.” .

The official, in particular, said that this diplomatic message fit on one A4 page, where only one and a half lines were devoted to the creation of an Iranian-Russian joint venture for uranium enrichment. “Russian proposals turned out to be vague. They did not specify either the mechanism of cooperation or its framework. Therefore, we cannot comment on the Russian note,” said the anonymous author.

True, this statement was a step forward, because previously the Iranian authorities had generally denied receiving any proposals from the Russian Foreign Ministry . Back on Sunday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry explained that the issue of partial transfer of nuclear production from Iran to Russia, if discussed with the Russian side, was only in general terms and only verbally. The representative of this department, Hamid Reza Asefi, emphasized that Tehran considers optimal the recent proposal of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to create a consortium of foreign states to implement Tehran’s nuclear program on Iranian territory.

Thus, coupled with previous statements, it becomes obvious that Iran's negotiating position is softening day by day.

Moscow’s initiative, we recall, was previously supported in general terms by the United States and the “European troika” consisting of Great Britain, Germany and France. If negotiations with the West and Russia fail, a dossier on the Iranian nuclear program will be transferred to the UN Security Council , which will threaten Iran with sanctions. The Russian option for solving the problem boils down to sending Iranian uranium raw materials to our country and enriching it at Russian enterprises, followed by returning the concentrate enriched to the stage of peaceful use to the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr.