Russia on Wednesday attacked Iran’s claim to have enriched uranium on its own, calling the announcement ”a step in the wrong direction” and demanding that the Islamic republic immediately suspend all uranium enrichment work, news agencies reported.
”We believe this is a step in the wrong direction,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mikhail Kamynin was quoted by Itar-tass and Interfax as saying.
”It runs counter to the resolutions of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] board of governors and the declarations from representatives of the United Nations Security Council,” he said.
Kamynin noted that the head of the IAEA was to begin a fact-finding visit to Iran on Wednesday ahead of a deadline later this month, imposed by the UN Security Council, for Tehran to freeze its enrichment programme, and said Moscow supported this trip.
”We hope that Iran correctly understands the concern of the international community and takes practical steps to implement IAEA decisions. These include a call for suspension of all uranium enrichment work, including scientific research,” Kamynin said.
The announcement on Tuesday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that his country had successfully completed low-level enrichment of uranium for use as nuclear fuel was a spectacular blow to Russian diplomatic efforts to slow a United States-led drive to impose sanctions on Iran.
”We are in a very bad situation,” said Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy head of the respected USA-Canada Institute policy think tank, referring to Russian policy and diplomacy on Iran.
”Is this the result of our carelessness or was it intentional? We have made too many mistakes on this issue. Is it not we who have created this problem by supporting a peaceful nuclear programme for Iran? If we were so worried, why have we not worked more closely with the West to end Iran’s nuclear programme?” he said.
The US, supported by allies in Europe and Israel, has long said it suspects that Iran is using its nuclear energy programme as cover to build its own nuclear weapons, an accusation Tehran continues to deny.
Russia occupies a unique place in the drama because it has been building Iran’s first nuclear power station and working for years with Iranian specialists to develop a nuclear-energy programme.
Iran maintains it has a right like any country that has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to have its own nuclear energy programme. The US says Tehran’s behaviour — notably calls by Ahmadinejad for the destruction of Israel — make it an exception to that rule.
While Moscow has always said it shares US and European opposition to any move by Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, Russia has also defended Tehran’s right to develop nuclear energy and, in tandem with China, has steadily resisted a US-led push for tough international action against Tehran.
Only hours before Ahmadinejad’s announcement on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov affirmed that Russia’s offer to enrich uranium for Iran on Russian soil — a Russian initiative designed to defuse the problem while preserving lucrative contracts with Iran — remained on the table.
Sergei Markov, director of the Political Research Institute in Moscow close to Kremlin policymakers, admitted that Iran’s nuclear announcement on Tuesday was a serious blow to efforts by Russia and others to resolve the impasse through gentle persuasion rather than confrontation.
”This statement overturns the results of all previous talks with the world community and points to Iran’s preparedness to go into a conflict of any depth,” Markov told Interfax. He blamed the ”absolute inconsistency of the US’s policies” for the growing crisis.
ITAR-TASS news agency meanwhile quoted an unnamed Iranian diplomat in Moscow as saying the fact that Iran had successfully enriched uranium itself did not mean it was rejecting the Russian enrichment offer, which was still being studied in Tehran. — AFP
