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BUSHEHR NUCLEAR PLANT NOT A PROLIFERATION RISK - MOSCOW
[April 22, 2006]

BUSHEHR NUCLEAR PLANT NOT A PROLIFERATION RISK - MOSCOW


(Interfax News Agency Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)MOSCOW. April 20 (Interfax) - Moscow says that the construction of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, complies with all Russian international obligations and does not constitute a threat to the nuclear non-proliferation regime.



"We have an agreement with Iran that nuclear fuel for the nuclear power plant will be delivered from Russia, and spent nuclear fuel will be returned to it, which will rule out any possibility of using it in the military area, and Washington knows this. From this point of view the nuclear plant does not constitute any threat to the non- proliferation regime," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said, commenting on the demand from U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns to stop nuclear cooperation with Iran.

"The construction of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which is under full control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is being carried out in strict compliance with our international obligations. This nuclear plant has no relation to Iranian enrichment research," the spokesman said.


"The United States knows full well that the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant cannot be used to produce military materials because of its technical specifications," he said.

Moreover, Moscow proceeds from the fact that only the UN Security Council may pass obligatory resolutions on curtailing cooperation with any state, Kamynin said.

"As yet the UN Security Council has not taken any decision on halting cooperation with Iran in the area of nuclear energy. Of course, any state may decide for itself on how it cooperates with other states," Kamynin said.

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