Nuclear fuel to Iran

Moscow

In a setback to international efforts to pressure Iran to cease its nuclear programs, Russia this week agreed to ship nuclear fuel to Iran to power a reactor it has been helping build. Under the deal, Russia will ship 80 tons of fuel by next March, and the Bushehr reactor should be generating electricity by November 2007. Seeking to assuage Western fears that Iran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons, Russian Security Council head Igor Ivanov said Russia would monitor the shipments closely and collect spent fuel. “Iran should be guaranteed the right to peacefully develop nuclear energy,” he said. Iran, though, rejected a Russian request that uranium enrichment be carried out on Russian territory.