Iran postpones enrichment talks with Russia

Iran’s negotiations with Russia over its plan to enrich Iranian uranium on its soil have been indefinitely postponed, presidential spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said today.

The talks, which were to have resumed on Thursday, have been postponed and will reconvene at a time of “mutual agreement”, Elham said.

Elham said the negotiations had been postponed because of the “new situation”, a reference to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s decision earlier this month to report Iran’s nuclear file to the UN. Security Council.

Iran strongly protested against the referral, which Russia, a long-time ally, supported.

The Russian government had proposed that Iran ship its uranium to Russia, where it would be enriched to a level suitable for nuclear reactors, and then returned to Iran to be used in its Russian-built reactor at Bushehr, which is due to go on stream later this year.

The plan was an attempt to avoid international objections to Iran’s enrichment of uranium – a process that can also produce material for nuclear weapons.