Iran already has enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear bomb and is still continuing its enrichment process, Russian business daily Kommersant said, citing experts and the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) report.
Iran currently has some 2.8 metric tons of low enriched uranium and 22 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium, according to the latest IAEA report on Iran's nuclear activities. Experts say that these 22 kilograms are already enough to produce a nuclear bomb.
"It is unrealistic to demand that Iran stop enriching uranium to 4 percent," a source in the Russian government told Kommersant. "We need to concentrate on reaching an agreement on stopping enrichment to 20 percent, the level at which a bomb can be made."
The IAEA report, released on Monday, urges Iran to "cooperate in clarifying outstanding issues" and suspend its uranium enrichment activities. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the report was politically motivated.
Western powers suspect Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons under the guise of its nuclear program, which Tehran says is aimed at the peaceful generation of civilian energy.
International pressure on Iran increased in early February when Tehran announced it had begun enriching uranium to 20 percent in lieu of an agreement on an exchange that would provide it with fuel for a research reactor.
On June 9, the UN Security Council passed a resolution imposing a fourth set of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
On Tuesday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he did not rule out that the Iran Six, which includes Britain, China, France, Germany, the United States and Russia, may reconsider its proposals on resolving the issue of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
Senior diplomats from the Iran Six met Iranian officials in Geneva last October to discuss an agreement on a nuclear fuel swap, but the agreement eventually fell through.
The draft agreement proposed by former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammed ElBaradei would have seen Iran send out about 80 percent of its known 1.5 metric tons of low-enriched uranium to Russia, where it would have been enriched, and to France to convert it into fuel plates for the research reactor in Tehran.
MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti)
