MOSCOW, January 9 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Iran are continuing talks on the Iranian nuclear program, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday. Ivanov said a delegation of Russian Security Council and Foreign Ministry officials was in Tehran for talks at the moment.
He, however, did not say if the two countries had reached agreement on the proposal made by Russia, which is assisting Iran in building a nuclear reactor at Bushehr, to establish a joint venture on its territory to enrich nuclear fuel for Iranian power plants. The proposal has received the United States and the European Union's backing.
"Russia has put forward what I think is a very sensible proposal of how to stick to international law and not to arouse the international community's concern," Ivanov told reporters.
Ivanov said he hoped tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear program would not evolve into an armed conflict.
"It is a serious problem that has to be tackled by political and diplomatic means and under the IAEA's aegis," the minister said.
The EU and the U.S. have expressed concerns that Iran might pursue nuclear research for military purposes, as uranium enrichment, which is part of nuclear fuel technology, can be used both to produce nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor fuel.
Tehran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it will resume practical research in nuclear fuel technology, suspended under an agreement with the EU troika (Germany, France and Britain), January 9, adding that Iran, like the other parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, had the right to carry out nuclear research under the IAEA's supervision.
