Russia formally proposed to Iran that it move its uranium enrichment facilities to Russian territory, in an apparent bid to raise pressure on Tehran to accept the Western-backed plan for restraining its nuclear program, but Iran denied receiving the proposal.
Iran insists the program 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 UN 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 on 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.
However, Iran yesterday denied receiving the proposal, but said it was happy to continue negotiations over its nuclear program with the EU.
"We haven't received any written and definite proposal from Russia yet," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.
"It is clear that we will review with a positive attitude any plan or proposal that recognizes Iran's right for enrichment on it own soil," he added, reiterating a stance which EU diplomats have said amounts to a rejection of the Russian plan.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Atomic Organization of Iran, dismissed the proposal as unacceptable earlier this month.
Germany, France and Britain, which are representing the EU 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 program 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 program is viewed with suspicion because it hid that work from UN inspectors for nearly two decades before its secret nuclear activities were revealed nearly three years ago.
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