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MOSCOW, Dec 25 (AP): Russia formally proposed to Iran that it move its uranium enrichment facilities to Russian territory, raising pressure on the Tehran regime to accept the Western-backed plan for restraining its nuclear programme.
Iran insists the programme has the sole aim of making fuel for atomic reactors that would generate electricity and denies US charges it is trying to develop nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Washington is pushing for Tehran to be brought before the United Nations Security Council, where it could face economic sanctions over the dispute.
But Russia and China, which have vetoes on the council, oppose referral and the West has stopped short of forcing the matter.
In a diplomatic note sent to Iran's government Saturday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said that "an earlier Russian offer to Iran to establish a joint Russian-Iranian enrichment venture in Russia remains valid," the ministry said. The note was delivered by the Russian Embassy in Tehran.
Iranian officials didn't immediately comment on the offer. Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Atomic Organisation of Iran, dismissed the proposal as unacceptable earlier this month.
Germany, France and Britain, which are representing the European Union in negotiations with Iran on the nuclear issue, suggested shifting Iran's enrichment activities to Russia, where nuclear material would be enriched to the level needed to fuel reactors. That, in theory, would reduce the possibility the technology also could be used to make weapons-grade uranium.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said its formal proposal represented a "Russian contribution into the search for mutually acceptable solutions in the context of settling the situation around the Iranian nuclear programme by political and diplomatic means."
Russia is building a nuclear power plant in Iran in a deal that has drawn strong US criticism.
Iran's enrichment programme is viewed with suspicion because the country hid that work from U.N. inspectors for nearly two decades before its secret nuclear activities were revealed nearly three years ago.
Since then, a probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has unearthed Iranian experiments, blueprints and equipment that either have "dual-use" applications or seem to have no nonmilitary function. That has further added to concerns, even though no firm evidence of a weapons programme has been found.
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