Iran, Russia to Sign Nuclear Plants Contract

Tehran – Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi is to sign new contracts with Russia on building nuclear power plants.

He left Tehran for Moscow Tuesday morning for a one-day visit at the head of a high ranking delegation.

After signing the cooperation agreement, Salehi and his Russian counterpart Sergey Kiriyenko are going to take part in a joint press conference.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the vice-president said under the contract two power plants will be constructed in Iran in cooperation with Russia.

Earlier, the AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said construction of the new Iranian nuclear power plants is expected to start by the end of 2014 and take between 5-7 years to complete.

Iran and Russia are working together to finalize the agreements, which he said contain legal, commercial and technical aspects, he said.

He added that in his talks with Rosatom Director General Sergey Kiriyenko, they had nearly concluded an agreement on construction of two power plants equipped with water desalination units near the current Bushehr Power Plant.

Zarif meets Omani deputy PM

On the other hand in Muscat, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with the Omani Deputy Prime Minister Prince Fahd bin Mahmud here on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Zarif highlighted the friendly relations between the two countries.

The two officials discussed the latest regional and international developments.

The Iranian FM further referred to the role of Oman in Iran-G5+1 nuclear talks and appreciated its efforts in hosting the negotiations.

Zarif arrived here Saturday evening for trilateral talks with his US counterpart John Kerry and EU nuclear negotiations coordinator Catherine Ashton.

Attaining final deal by Nov. 24 difficult, says Araqchi

Reaching a final nuclear deal with the world powers by the November 24 deadline is difficult, senior Iranian negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi said on Monday.

“Since all issues are interwoven, this makes the job difficult and obtaining results by November 24 is really a tough job; our time is really limited, yet we are not disappointed,” Araqchi told reporters in Masqat where representatives of Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) started another round of multilateral talks on Tuesday morning.

Araqchi, who was speaking after two days of talks among the top diplomats of Iran, the US and the EU, underlined that negotiations are intensely underway on the volume of Iran’s nuclear reserves, installations, the heavy water reactor in Arak and the enrichment facilities in Fordo.

Iran and the six major world powers have already held 8 rounds of nuclear negotiations after inking an interim agreement in Geneva in 2013, and have less than three weeks time to strike a final deal before the November 24 deadline.

Tehran and the six powers have already held seven rounds of talks in Vienna, and one more round in New York and on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. They started their 9th round of negotiations in Oman this morning.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, his US counterpart John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had earlier had two days of trilateral talks in Masqat on Sunday and Monday.

The Geneva agreement took effect on January 20 and expired six months later on July 20. In July, Tehran and the six countries agreed to extend negotiations until November 24 after they failed to reach an agreement on a number of key issues.

IRNA, FNA

R.S