Russia Hardens Line With Iran.

Moscow has warned it might be increasingly difficult to complete the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant unless Tehran suspends uranium enrichment. Igor Ivanov, secretary of Russia's National Security Council, has met Ali Hosseini Tash, deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), to complain that Iran had fallen behind in payments for work on the plant and delays in equipment deliveries. Dmitry Peskov, the deputy Kremlin spokesman, denied a report in The New York Times that Ivanov had issued an "ultimatum" at the meeting that Russia would withhold fuel unless Iran suspended enrichment. Peskov said: "No ultimatum was issued and such wording was never used".

However, Peskov said: "The position of Russia is known. We keep saying to our Iranian partners that they have to comply with international law. They have to obey the [Dec. 23] resolution of the [UN] Security Council [to suspend enrichment] and they have to clarify the concerns of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts with respect to their enrichment programme". (The UNSC has repeatedly demanded that Tehran cease uranium enrichment, which can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material).

Peskov said Ivanov had warned that Iran's failure to comply already meant some third-country suppliers could not fulfil agreements to deliver equipment for Bushehr. Atomstroiexport, constructor of the plant, says cooling equipment is among parts being delayed.

Peskov said: There was no point in Russia delivering fuel unless the station was otherwise functional, adding: "The unwillingness or inability of Iran to meet the demands of the international community already led to a certain sanctions regime and these sanctions already are jeopardising the completion of the contract. Continued refusal, and a further UN resolution, will only bring additional obstacles".

Russian officials last week said Moscow had made clear it could not continue to defend Iran's right to peaceful nuclear power unless Tehran took the steps demanded by the international community to prove that its nuclear programme was indeed peaceful.

The Associated Press on March 20 reported that Russia was pulling out its technicians and engineers from Bushehr, leaving Iran's first nuclear reactor just short of completion at a time of growing international pressure. Citing US and EU officials, AP said a large number of Russian technicians, engineers and other specialists were "flown back to Moscow within the last week, at about the same time senior Russian and Iranian officials tried, but failed, to resolve differences over the Bushehr nuclear reactor". AP added: "Although both sides officially say their differences are financial, the dispute has a strong political component that the West hopes could result in Moscow lining up closer behind US-led efforts to impose harsher UN sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.

"Asked about the approximately 2,000 Russian workers on site of the nearly completed reactor outside...Bushehr, the US official said: 'A good number of them have left recently'. The European diplomat, who is accredited to the...[IAEA], said a large number had departed as late as last week, during abortive talks in Moscow between the Russian Security Council head, Igor Ivanov, and Ali Hosseini Tash... Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Rosatom, Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency, confirmed that the number of Russian workers at the Bushehr plant had recently dwindled because of what he said were Iranian payment delays. He would not say how many had left".

The reactor is 95% completed, although eight years behind schedule. But Russia announced this month that further work on the project would be delayed because Iran had failed to make monthly payments since January. It said the delay could cause "irreversible" damage to the project.