AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Budapest, Hungary: Russia is optimistic that Iranian negotiators will agree to return to an international protocol limiting Tehran's nuclear activities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said here Tuesday. “We are optimists and consider we can come to an agreement with our Iranian interlocutors about returning Iran to the additional protocol,” Putin said during a visit to Hungary.
“We can agree also on setting up a joint venture on Russian territory … for enrichment of uranium for the nuclear industry of Iran,” Putin said at a news conference.
The additional protocol of the International Non-Proliferation Treaty concerns the right of international inspectors to examine Iran's nuclear activities, a key demand of the West, which suspects Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Russia has proposed setting up a joint venture with Iran that would enrich uranium on Russian soil for Tehran, a proposal Moscow hopes would allay Western concerns.
Iranian officials were due to hold talks on the proposal in Moscow on Wednesday as time runs out ahead of a crucial March 6 meeting of the board of governors of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Association.
That meeting is due to decide whether to move debate on the Iran nuclear issue to the UN Security Council, which can impose economic sanctions.
