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| Iran, Russia to Talk on Enrichment Offer |
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Iran has officially notified Russia of plans to send a delegation to Moscow on Monday, February 20, for talks on Russia's uranium enrichment offer, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday. "Iran has sent a letter officially notifying us of the Feb. 20 visit. Russia has received it," said Vyacheslav Moshkalo, an official of the Russian Embassy in Tehran. A day earlier, Tehran said it delayed the talks, originally scheduled to begin Thursday, February 16, in Moscow, until Monday. The talks will focus on Moscow's proposal to enrich uranium for Iran on Russian territory. However, there has been no confirmation from the Russian Foreign Ministry so far. Western countries have backed the compromise plan, saying it could help allay concerns about Iran potentially producing weapons-grade nuclear material. Iran's nuclear progress irreversible: president Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Iran's progress in the nuclear field was irreversible, the official IRNA news agency reported." The achievements of the Iranian nation in the field (of nuclear technology) are irreversible," IRNA cited Ahmadinejad as saying. Ahmadinejad made the remarks when traveling to the central town of Natanz, where the country's uranium enrichment facilities were located. The president also said that Iran's "enemies", who use the accusation of nuclear weapon development as a pretext, were rather "concerned over and panicked by the self-sufficiency and knowledge of the Iranian nation and the progress of youth in the nuclear field." Ahmadinejad also stressed that there would be "no end" to the country's work on nuclear technology and that the Iranians could "always increase the speed of progress." Ahmadinejad's comments came two days after Iran resumed some small-scale uranium enrichment work in the Natanz facilities, which had been suspended for nearly two and a half years. On Tuesday, both Javad Vaidi, Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, confirmed Monday's resumption but said the resumed enrichment work was just for research purposes. Both officials said that it would take several moths for Iran to actually resume full-scale industrial enrichment due to the suspension of more that two years. Iran said the resumption of the enrichment work was a retaliative move against the International Atomic Energy Agency's(IAEA) resolution on Feb. 4, which requires the agency's chief to report Iran's case to the UN Security Council. Tehran regards the suspension of uranium enrichment and the admittance of snap IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites as voluntary moves aimed to build confidence. The Islamic Republic had threatened that all voluntary measures would be ceased once the nuclear issue was referred to the UN Security Council. (Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2006)
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