AFP: Iran’s first nuclear plant, which Russia is building in the city of Bushehr, should go online by August regardless of any new UN sanctions against Tehran, a top Russian atomic official said Thursday.
MOSCOW (AFP) — Iran’s first nuclear plant, which Russia is building in the city of Bushehr, should go online by August regardless of any new UN sanctions against Tehran, a top Russian atomic official said Thursday.
“We are counting on the nuclear power station launching in August, if everything goes as planned,” Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia’s federal atomic energy agency, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
“The resolution now being prepared on Iran will not in any way affect this.”
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, including Russia, have broadly agreed a new sanctions text aimed punishing Iran for its defiance over a nuclear drive the West fears is aimed at building an atomic bomb.
Moscow, which has long enjoyed close ties with Tehran, has helped it build the power plant at Bushehr since the mid-1990s, though the launch has been marred by a series of delays, not least the stand-off over Iran’s nuclear activities.
