Iranian Official Gives Progress Report on Nuclear Talks With Russia
Excerpt from report by Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) website
Tehran, 15 April: The latest news on the Bushehr power plant tells of plans for an Iranian delegation to travel to Moscow in order to resolve points of disagreement between the Iranians and the Russians about timing and finding a way forward to commission the power plant.
In March 2007, as Iran was preparing for the delivery of fuel for the Bushehr power plant based on the agreement of September 2006, the Russians announced for the sixth time that the plant would not be coming on line as planned in August 2007 and therefore no fuel would be sent to Iran.
While the Russian were stating the reason for this delay to be Iran’s failure to meet its financial obligations, the Iranians have strenuously denied this claim. Finally, negotiations started between the two parties in order to find a solution to the issue and negotiations are ongoing to this day.
The parties announced that they had more or less solved all the issues. However, there are no signs of fuel being sent and no signs that the power plant will be coming on line on schedule.
Under such circumstances Dr Ahmad Fayyazbakhsh, the deputy for power plants at the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, who is responsible for the most recent round of negotiations between Iran and Russia commented on the talks at a news conference today. This was the same news conference at which he announced Iran’s intention to invite bids for the construction of two nuclear power plants with a maximum production capacity of 3,000 MW. He said: There have been two rounds of negotiations in Tehran and one round in Moscow. Agreements have been reached which led to understanding on a mutually-acceptable contract. Also banking officials form both countries signed a contract in Tehran last Thursday concerning the implementation of financial agreements.
He added: The finalization of the mutually-acceptable agreements will become clear during my visit next week to Moscow.
The deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization said: There has been progress in general between the parties concerning bringing the Bushehr power plant on line.
ISNA’s reporter said that Tehran and Moscow both have their own views on the subject of the delays on the commissioning of the Bushehr power plant and that there does not seem to be any shared views, especially on the subject of the financial problems. Fayyazbakhsh replied: In any contract, there is a code of conduct, on the basis of which the parties to the contract proceed and they cannot bring in new views on each occasion, because this is neither possible nor desirable. In the first contract on the Bushehr power plant, it has been stated explicitly that the contract for the project to complete the Bushehr power plant will abide by Iran’s domestic laws and regulations and its legislation and stances.
He added: Of course, an exception is made on safety issues, on which – in addition to abiding by Iran’s safety system – we abide by the IAEA’s regulations.
Asked whether the Russians had accepted this, he said: They have accepted this to a large extent; of course, the finalization of this hinges on our future talks in Moscow.
The deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization said the following regarding the fact that the Russian contractor has said that the commissioning of the power plant would be delayed by two months: We have not accepted the two months.
He added: On the basis of the prior agreement, fuel for the power plant should have been delivered by the end of March 2007 but the Russian Federation has declared that this has been delayed for a short while.
The deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization said the following about new agreements with the Russians: New agreements do not entail a delay to the scheduled commissioning of the Bushehr nuclear plant.
Regarding his visit to Moscow in the near future, he said: During the visit, our main topic of discussion will be rapid progress for the completion of the power plant and the transport of the remaining equipment to Iran, and we hope that the talks will take the process of equipping the power plant from 93.3 per cent to 96 per cent and, then, to 98 per cent.
The deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization continued: Separate talks are to take place soon for the delivery of fuel in the form of a delegation which is due to visit Moscow from Iran.
He remarked: The issue of the delivery of fuel has not reached the critical point yet; the agreed time was the end of March but there is a grace period which has not ended yet.
The deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization said: The longer the Russians delay the delivery of fuel beyond the grace period, the longer they have delayed abiding by the contract.
[Passage omitted: Background material on Russian officials' remarks in this connection over the past few months.]
(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.