December 17, 2007 (LPAC)--In a clear effort to prevent Cheney from attacking Iran, Russia continues to take steps, in the context of the just concluded Annapolis conference and the upcoming Middle East conference in Moscow, to engage Iran in dialogue, while continuing to pressure it to suspend uranium enrichment, even though Iran still insists on its right to uranium enrichment.
The Russian Atomstroiexport, the company which is a member of the consortium building the nuclear power station at Bushehr, Iran, announced that the first delivery of "fuel assemblies" containing uranium enriched to 3.62% were delivered on December 14. Deliveries will continue until February 2008, and after six months it is believed the power station will be commissioned.
"Containers with fuel sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have been delivered to the site and placed in a special storage facility subject to international safety monitoring," reports Novosti by statement of Rosatom.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying, "We believe that entirely new conditions have been created, allowing Iran to take steps to restore trust in the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.... This includes suspension of uranium enrichment activities, as Iran will not need its own enrichment facility in the mid-term."
Although the spent fuel will be returned to Germany, an unnamed Iranian official told Reuters that there is nothing in the agreement stipulating that Iran will stop enriching uranium.
At the same time, the Iranian Defense Ministry announced that this Wednesday Tehran will host the fourth conference of the Iran-Russia Joint Defense Cooperation Commission.
The Russian delegation will be directed by the head of the Russian Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, Mikhail Dmitriyev, who arrives in Tehran on Wednesday. The commission will discuss expanding defense ties, and, will examine the state of the agreements reached during earlier Iran-Russia joint defense commissions, according to an IRNA report.
