Moscow Defies West On Nuclear Fuel To Iran

RUSSIA has delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Irans Bushehr atomic power station, a step Western powers worried by Tehrans nuclear ambitions had urged Moscow not to take.

Anticipating a diplomatic storm over the announcement, Russia said yesterday that Tehran had given it assurances the fuel sent to the south-western port city would not be used for other purposes, and it urged Tehran to drop its own uranium enrichment program.

But a senior Iranian official said the country would not under any circumstances halt its enrichment program — the source of friction with foreign powers worried the enriched uranium could be used in a nuclear bomb.

Russia, building Irans first nuclear power station under a $1 billion contract, has been delaying delivery of the fuel for months, citing payment problems.

Analysts say the true reason was disquiet in Moscow about the radical style of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the sensitivity of shipping uranium to a country under international sanctions over its nuclear program.

In a statement yesterday, Russias Foreign Ministry said the project was back on track.

"On December 16 the delivery of fuel began from Russia to the Iranian atomic power station in Bushehr." Irans Atomic Energy Organisation head, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, confirmed to the countrys official IRNA news agency that the first batch of about 80 tonnes had been delivered.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only but the US and its allies suspect Tehran has ambitions to build a nuclear weapon.

Western powers had pressed Russia not to send fuel to Bushehr as part of an international effort to pressure Tehran into curbing its nuclear program.

Russia says Bushehr is being built under the supervision of the UNs nuclear watchdog, ruling out any military use for the fuel or technology.

It said it had been given new guarantees on this before sending the fuel.

The UN Security Council has imposed two rounds of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt enrichment

The Russian Foreign Ministry said delivering fuel to Bushehr made Irans own enrichment program redundant, and that Iran should take the opportunity to halt enrichment.

"We believe that qualitatively new conditions have been created, which will allow Iran to take the steps which are demanded of it … for the restoration of trust in the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program," the statement said.

But a senior Iranian official rejected this. "There is no talk of halting enrichment. Nothing is related to freezing enrichment," the official said.

Russian officials said the final shipment of fuel would arrive in Bushehr in February next year.

Moscows change of heart on Bushehr was caused by Irans greater openness with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors this year, said Russian security analyst Vladimir Orlov, president of the PIR Centre think tank.

A US intelligence report published at the start of this month, which said Iran had halted a nuclear weapons program in 2003, was also a factor in Moscows thinking, he said.

"There are no facts proving that Iran is working on a (military) nuclear program. Neither the IAEA, nor Russia, nor even the United States have such facts," Orlov said.

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