Russia continues on its short-sighted and ultimately suicidal path of aiding the mujahedin. “Iran struck enrichment deal with Russia,” from Al-Jazeera, with thanks to all who sent this in:
Iran reached a “basic” agreement with Russia on a joint venture to enrich uranium and will continue talks in coming days, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA said on Saturday.
Russia offered to enrich uranium on its soil for use as nuclear fuel in Iran to allay Western concerns that Tehran could be working on an atomic weapons program, a charge strongly rejected by the Islamic Republic.
A “basic agreement” on the Russian proposal was previously announced by Iran in February but progress on the deal stalled after Tehran refused to suspend enrichment work.
Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said a full agreement was now close in reach.
“We voiced our preliminary agreement with this proposal long ago, but there are a lot of issues that should be worked on – technical, legal, and financial ones,” Soltanieh told journalists in Moscow on Friday, according to the Interfax news agency.
Iran is continuing negotiations on setting up the joint venture with Russia, he said.