Reuters: Iranian nuclear negotiators were poised to leave Moscow on Tuesday with no word of any progress on Moscow’s proposal to enrich Iranian uranium on Russian soil, the Interfax news agency said.
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Iranian nuclear negotiators were poised to leave Moscow on Tuesday with no word of any progress on Moscow’s proposal to enrich Iranian uranium on Russian soil, the Interfax news agency said.
“The Iranian delegation is leaving Moscow today at 12:00 (0900 GMT) from Sheremetyevo airport,” Interfax quoted Iran’s embassy in Moscow as saying in a statement. The embassy could not be immediately reached to confirm the report.
The Russian offer on joint uranium enrichment is designed to ease international concerns that Tehran wants a nuclear bomb and is seen by some as the last chance to defuse the row over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions before Western governments seek sanctions.
A senior Iranian official in Tehran said the talks would continue in Iran’s capital. Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom is scheduled to travel to Iran later this week.
“Another round of the (Iran-Russia) talks will take place in Tehran in the coming days,” the Iranian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
Speaking earlier on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “I would be cautious about using the terms ‘collapse’ or ‘failure’ until the talks are over,” Itar-Tass news agency reported.
It was unclear if the Moscow talks were still underway when Lavrov was speaking.
Iran’s delegation was led by Ali Hosseintash, a deputy head of the National Security Council.
(Additional reporting by Tehran bureau)
