Russian experts leaving Iranian nuclear reactor construction site

Russia is pulling out its experts from the Iranian nuclear reactor site they were helping build, US and European officials said yesterday.

The move reflected a growing rift between Iran and Russia that could lead to harsher UN sanctions on the Islamic republic for its refusal to stop uranium enrichment.

The representatives — a European diplomat and a US official — said a large number of Russian technicians, engineers and other specialists have returned to Moscow in the past week, at about the same time senior Russian and Iranian officials tried unsuccessfully to resolve financial differences over the Bushehr nuclear reactor.