Iran nuclear talks 'not going easily': Putin

AFP
BAKU
Petroleumworld.com 02 23 06

Talks with Iran on a Russian plan to resolve international tensions over Tehran's nuclear programme are making little progress, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

"The negotiations in Moscow are not going easily," he said during a joint news conference in Baku with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. But he added: "We hope that we will be able to achieve a positive result."

He said Iranian negotiators had taken a "pause" to hold further consultations in Tehran and added that he believed that a Russian proposal -- to enrich uranium for use as nuclear fuel jointly with Iran at a site on Russian territory -- would be acceptable to Iran.

"We think that the Russian suggestion for resolving the crisis through creation of a joint venture for the enrichment of uranium is acceptable for Iran," Putin said.

Israel's acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, meanwhile stepped up his war of words against Iran's hardline president and called on the world to stop Tehran from being able to produce nuclear weapons.

"The Iranian president's remarks are anti-Semitic and despicable," Olmert said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has branded the Nazi genocide of Jews in World War II a myth and has called for the state of Israel to be "wiped off the map".

Talks between Moscow and Tehran were due to resume Thursday when the head of Russia's atomic energy agency travels to Iran to hold further meetings with officials and to visit a nuclear power station Russia is building at Bushehr, in the south of the country.

But a Russian official due to take part in those talks said he thought Iran would wait to announce a decision on Russia's proposal until just before the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, meets on March 6.

Iran has been reported to the UN Security Council over its nuclear activities. But the outcome of the meeting on March 6 of the International Atomic Energy Agency will be vital in determining how the world body responds.

"At the moment we are in deadlock,' said the official, who asked not be named. "The most difficult thing for Iran is to give up its right to enrich uranium on its territory.

The official also said that the Iranians would be banned from gaining any access to Russian nuclear technology if they did eventually enrich uranium on Russian soil.

Chief Iranian negotiator Ali Hosseini-Tash said the discussions in Moscow had been positive and gave Tehran "hope of reaching an agreement".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was markedly more cautious.

"I think it would be premature to use terms such as failure or success," he told reporters after the talks.

Meanwhile Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, accompanying Putin on his visit to Baku, suggested tensions over Iran could lead to instability on global energy markets.

"With growing economies everywhere, Iranian gas is needed not only in the South Caucasus but in India, Pakistan and elsewhere. I think stability in Iran will mean stability in world markets," Khristenko told AFP.

Iran's deputy oil minister said Iran would not reduce its oil exports to use as a weapon in its nuclear row with the West.

"Iran does not intend to use oil as a weapon to fight nuclear pressures," Iranian television quoted Hadi Nejad-Hoseinian as saying.

Iran has been reported to the UN Security Council, where it could face sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme, which the West fears is a cover for weapons ambitions.

The second largest OPEC producer, Iran says it wants nuclear technology simply for civilian purposes, to meet its energy needs.

President Ahmadinejad has said, however, that Iran had the upper hand when it came to enduring any eventual sanctions.

"Energy is a matter for the West ... any decision in this regard will not hurt us. It will hurt the consumers and not the producers," he said earlier this month.

Iran's economy is state-dominated and largely kept afloat by crude sales.

AFP 02 22 06

Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved

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