Russia and Iran to continue nuke cooperation

[pandybat]

Is this freaking anyone out as much as it is me? I just don't feel like I can trust countries messing around with this stuff anymore, no matter what they say they are using it for.

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Posted on Thu, Oct. 07, 2004

Russia, Iran to Continue Nuke Cooperation

MOSCOW - Russia will continue its nuclear energy cooperation with Iran, a senior Russian official said Thursday, despite international concern that Tehran might be trying to develop atomic weapons.

"We have been cooperating and will continue to cooperate with Iran in the peaceful usage of nuclear energy," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said, according to the Interfax news agency. "It does not matter if there is pressure or not, but it does matter that we will comply with all legal commitments in cooperation with Iran."

Russia is completing a $800 million deal to build a nuclear reactor at Bushehr in southern Iran, a project that has drawn concern from the United States.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, is investigating nearly two decades of covert nuclear activity by Iran. Tehran maintains its program is meant to generate electricity, but Washington claims it is a weapons program.

Russia has repeatedly emphasized that Iran has the right to develop a peaceful nuclear energy program, but Moscow has urged Iran to voluntarily halt all efforts to enrich uranium as a sign of goodwill and to show greater openness to IAEA inspectors. The IAEA has also called on Iran to halt uranium enrichment - a technology that could be used to make weapons.