Top Iranian and Russian officials agreed on Thursday to hold talks on a Russian proposal aimed a resolving Tehran’s nuclear standoff with the West, an Iranian diplomat close to the talks said. The proposal involves creating a joint Iranian-Russian company to enrich uranium in Russia. The plan has been put forward by Moscow in a bid to allay international concerns that Iran could manufacture highly enriched uranium on its own soil to build atomic weapons. Iranian officials had previously said they would reject any plan which denied Iran the right to build its own uranium enrichment facilities. But, in a sudden change of tone, a senior official said on Wednesday Tehran would “seriously and enthusiastically” study the Russian plan.The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agreement to talks on the proposal came during a telephone conversation between Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov. Larijani told Ivanov there were “ambiguities and problems” with the Russian plan but that “the outline of the proposal can be reviewed”, the diplomat said.Ivanov agreed to send a delegation to Tehran for further talks, the diplomat said, without specifying when they would take place. Ivanov, who has a record of holding unofficial talks on tricky foreign policy issues for the Kremlin, was not immediately available for comment.
