Iran discusses ‘serious’ nuke ideas with Russia
Middle East Desk Report

TEHRAN—Iran has prepared a package of “serious” proposals to help defuse a nuclear row with world powers, chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said on Monday after talks with a top Russian official.
Iran said this month it would unveil ideas to help end the dispute over its nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at producing nuclear bombs. Tehran, which insists its atomic program is aimed only at generating electricity, has been hit by three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006 for refusing U.N. demands to halt sensitive nuclear work.
“Iran ... has serious proposals regarding the nuclear issue, about what to do to minimize the nuclear threat around the world,” Jalili said without giving details of the package. The proposals were discussed with Valentin Sobolev, acting secretary of Russia’s National Security Council, an Iranian official said. Further talks would be held on Tuesday, he added.
Sobolev, speaking through an interpreter at a joint news conference with Jalili, said he had discussed the nuclear issue, as well as technical and military cooperation. “Iran’s activities are peaceful and not a threat against any country,” the Russian said. The United States and Britain this month vowed a united effort to stop what they say is Iran’s bid to build a nuclear bomb, possibly by expanding sanctions. Russia, along with China, has been reluctant to back more sanctions in the past although it supported all three U.N. resolutions when it came to a vote at the U.N. Security Council.
World powers are considering enhancing a package of trade and other incentives for Iran, previously proposed in 2006, if it stops enriching uranium, which can be used as nuclear fuel or, if so desired, provide material for bombs. Jalili said Iran was ready for talks with world powers but said such discussions had to respect the Islamic Republic’s position, including its role as a regional player. “We prepared a proposal to be handed over and on those issues we think we can talk to influential powers which want to establish peace and stability in the world and respect the integrity of countries. We can sit down and talk to them,” he said, adding the package covered political and security issues.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said this month Iran would reveal proposals with a “new orientation.” The talks with Russia came the same day Olli Heinonen, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s top investigator, arrived in Tehran to discuss international accusations that Iran researched how to make nuclear bombs.
Heinonen had visited Iran last week. After that trip, the IAEA said Tehran had agreed on steps to clarify the intelligence information by the end of May. Iran had earlier dismissed the intelligence as baseless and declined to address it in detail.
“We will cooperate with the agency as the only relevant technical organization, and in case of any question or ambiguity we will provide the answers away from any political ballyhoo,” Iran’s IAEA ambassador, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said.
In comments reported by Iran’s Fars News Agency, he said Heinonen’s talks would likely last three days, starting Monday.
In a presentation in February, Heinonen indicated links in Iran between projects to process uranium, test explosives and modify a missile cone in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.
The intelligence came variously from a laptop computer given to Washington by an Iranian defector in 2004, from some other Western countries and the agency’s own inquiries.