Russia cautious as Iran talks get underway
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-20 21:11

Analysts warned against expecting a decisive outcome Monday, saying a concrete result would more likely emerge from further talks when the head of Russia's atomic energy agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, visits Iran on Thursday.

UN chief Kofi Annan, pictured on 13 February, welcomed upcoming talks between Iran and Russia on a Russian proposal on uranium enrichment, and urged Tehran to respond positively to resolve the crisis over its nuclear program. [AFP]

Experts have said Iran would like its scientists to have access to the Russian enrichment facility and hope to retain the right to conduct some part of the enrichment process at home.

But Former Russian Atomic Energy Minister Viktor Mikhailov told the Vremya Novostei daily in comments published on Monday that the entire facility would be off-limits.

IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei recently suggested that the international community might have no choice but to accept small-scale enrichment on Iranian soil as a condition for Tehran to agree to move its full program abroad, a diplomat familiar with ElBaradei's thinking said Sunday.

Iranian presidential spokesman Gholamhossein Elham, speaking in a news conference Monday, welcomed the IAEA proposal on small-scale enrichment inside Iran as a "positive step" toward resolving the nuclear dispute but said that any restrictions on Tehran's right to access nuclear energy were unacceptable.

For Russia, this week's talks are an opportunity to stave off the threat of action against a country where it has strong interests _ it is building Iran's first nuclear power station _ and win prestige by helping find a solution to a conflict in which it was long seen as part of the problem.

But the price would be high for Iran, at least in terms of pride: Giving up enrichment efforts at home, even temporarily, goes against its leaders' adamant insistence on their right to conduct the process as part of what they insist is a peaceful nuclear energy program.