Forgive me. You were right.

Vees,
Forgive me. You were right.
Iran has now given Russia an incentive to assist the Western Empire. Iran has missed the latest payment on the Russian umbrella.

Iran denies delaying payment for reactor

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

Uranium fuel deliveries to a Russian-built nuclear plant in Iran, and the reactor's launch, could fall behind schedule because of delays in Iran making payments, Russian officials said Monday — the latest sign of financial disputes dogging the deal at the center of Moscow's nuclear cooperation with Tehran. But a top nuclear official in Iran rejected claims that Tehran had been dragging its feet on payments and accused Moscow of trying to put back the launch of the reactor.

Iran broke the schedule of payments this year under the $1 billion contract to build the Bushehr nuclear plant, said a government official, who asked not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the Iranians blamed the delay on the need to switch from dollars to euros for payments.

Federal nuclear power agency spokesman Sergei Novikov said the delay could derail the startup schedule for the reactor. Last year, Russia agreed to ship fuel to the plant in southern Iran by March 2007 and launch the facility in September, with electricity generation to start by November.

"The launch schedule definitely could be affected," Novikov told The Associated Press.

Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said there was no delay from the Iranian side.

"Iran has had no delay whatsoever in making payments for the Bushehr nuclear power plant to the Russian ... company," he was quoted by IRNA as saying.

The warning came amid what Russia says are persistent diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to allay international fears that it could be seeking nuclear weapons by halting uranium enrichment.

But while a delay in launching the Bushehr plant is likely to anger Iran, there was no indication that Russia could be maneuvering to scrap the deal, which has provoked Western criticism. Russia emphasizes that Iran has the right to a peaceful nuclear energy program, and President Vladimir Putin and other officials have said repeatedly that Moscow would honor the Bushehr contract.

Putin's increasingly defiant posture toward the United States would make it highly unlikely that the Kremlin could opt out of the agreement, particularly now that U.S. concerns have been eased by an agreement obliging Iran to return spent fuel — which could potentially be used for a nuclear weapons program — to Russia.

"Russia remains firmly committed to the Bushehr deal, and Putin's recent statements make a change in attitude highly improbable," said Yevgeny Volk, the head of the Heritage Foundation's Moscow office.

In December, Russia supported a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing limited sanctions against Iran over its refusal to stop uranium enrichment, but the support came only after an initial proposal that would have imposed curbs on the Bushehr plant was dropped.

The United States and some allies claim Iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, while Tehran maintains it is only intended to generate electricity.

Iran has been keen to get the uranium fuel from Russia, but Russian officials said it would only be delivered six months before the plant's launch.

Prodded by the Iranians about the delivery, Russia's presidential Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov said on a recent trip to Tehran that it would be delivered "when the need comes."

Russia has signed a deal with Iran obliging it to return all spent fuel from Bushehr for reprocessing — a move intended to assuage global concerns that the fuel could be diverted to make nuclear weapons.

A Russian official familiar with the Bushehr project said the delivery of refrigerating equipment and safety systems which Iran ordered elsewhere also had been delayed. The equipment is likely to be delivered this autumn at the earliest and would take several months to assemble, said the official who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Russian nuclear officials have complained about Iran failing to pay on time for the construction work at Bushehr.

Sergei Shmatko, the chief of Russia's state Atomstroiexport company building the Bushehr plant, said in December that Iran already had paid Russia $900 million for the plant's construction. He added, however, that his company had provided a $140 million loan to Iran to finance construction work because the Iranians had been slow about payments recently.

The Kremlin had proposed that Iran move its enrichment work to Russian territory, where it could be better monitored, to alleviate international suspicions. Iranian leaders had said they were interested in the idea, but nothing came of it as Tehran insisted on keeping some uranium enrichment activities on its soil.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press.