UPDATE - Iran's Kharrazi hopes for new Russian nuclear deal
Date: 05-Apr-02
Country: RUSSIA
Author: Andrei Shukshin
Moscow's nuclear cooperation with Tehran is a thorn in its otherwise improved relations with Washington, which lists Iran among nations belonging to an "axis of evil". Russia insists the deal is strictly for civil purposes and within international law.
"The issue of building new reactors for the nuclear power station...is set to be decided at the negotiating table," Kharrazi said as he outlined the agenda of his delayed Moscow visit in a speech at Moscow's prestigious Diplomatic Academy.
Kharrazi, originally due to visit Moscow in February, meets President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Friday.
Russia was the only country to agree to finish work on Iran's sole nuclear power station in Bushehr, years after the original German contractors withdrew. Tehran now wants Moscow to build a second reactor in addition to the one initially planned.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami paid a visit last year to the plant producing the first reactor.
Russia's atomic energy ministry said last month it had received the government's go-ahead for extending nuclear cooperation with Iran, but did not specify whether that meant permission to build the second reactor.
If such a deal is struck, it is certain to upset Washington which has pressed its criticism of Moscow's ties with Tehran even after the two countries spoke of a new era in relations after Russia endorsed the U.S. anti-terror drive.
UNDER PRESSURE
Despite Moscow's talk of keeping an independent line on Tehran, Kharrazi clearly felt U.S. pressure in February, when he was forced to postpone his visit to Moscow at the last moment as it coincided with a trip by a top U.S. official.
No formal explanation was given, except that work on some documents had to be completed. Russian analysts spoke of Iran becoming a diplomatic problem if Moscow really wanted to forge close long-term relations with the United States.
Carving up the oil-rich Caspian Sea is another key issue on Kharrazi's Moscow agenda, with Tehran and four ex-Soviet littoral states at loggerheads over how to divide its riches. A deal would pave the way for billions of dollars of investment.
Addressing the Diplomatic Academy, Kharrazi spoke of "grandiose" Russian-Iranian projects and depicted a positive and rosy picture of future relations between the two countries.
He named the creation of a North-South transport corridor - due to link an Indian port to Europe and cut delivery times for shipments from Asia - as another major venture to be discussed. Earlier in the day, Kharrazi ruled out unilateral steps by Gulf nations to cut oil supplies to the United States as a way of putting pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories.
Kharrazi was responding to an Iraqi call on its neighbours to stifle the U.S. economy by halting oil shipments overseas.
"This is not a decision that one country alone can make for itself. It has to be a collective decision for it to be effective. If Muslim oil producers take such a decision, it will be an effective weapon," Kharrazi told reporters.