Iran 'will enrich uranium in Russia'

Indonesia’s foreign minister said today that he expects Iran to accept a proposal to use Russian facilities to enrich uranium, citing recent discussions with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.

Russia has offered to let Iran use its uranium enrichment centres to help ease fears that Tehran is pursuing civilian uses of atomic power as a front for a nuclear weapons program.

The European Union and US have backed the proposal as way out of the current crisis, but Iran has said it needs more work.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Iran’s chief negotiator, whom he did not identify by name, had told him that technical talks between Iran and Russia would take place on February 16 on the offer.

“It is most likely that Iran will accept,” he told reporters in Jakarta, adding that this would “be the solution to the problem.”

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed today that his country will resist Western pressures and will complete its nuclear program, a day before a key vote by the UN nuclear watchdog likely to put Iran before the Security Council.

“In nuclear energy, our nation will continue its path until full realisation of its rights,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in southern Iran.

“Nuclear energy is our right, and we will resist until this right is fully realised,” he said. His speech was broadcast live on state-run television.

He was speaking in Bushehr, the site of Iran’s only nuclear power plant where Russia is putting the finishing touches.