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Russia will call on Iran to resume its talks with the European Union (EU) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia's federal nuclear agency chief Alexander Rumyantsev said on Tuesday.
"We perfectly realize that under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has every right for enrichment," Rumyantsev said in an interview with the Der Standard daily.
However, "we keep advising them not to start enrichment," he said.
The Russian official made the remarks after the IAEA board of governors adopted an EU-drafted resolution Saturday, accusing Iran of breaching the NPT Safeguards Agreement.
Russia, which abstained from the IAEA voting, supports the proposal by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei to work out a plan to provide nuclear fuel to all countries, said Rumyantsev.
Iran has fiercely rejected the IAEA resolution as "unacceptable and illegal."
"The resolution is unacceptable and illegal. The Europeans even failed to get a consensus on it," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said.
The current crisis was triggered by Tehran's resumption of highly sensitive uranium enrichment last month after its talks with the EU trio of Germany, Britain and France have grounded to a halt.
(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2005)
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