Moscow, Tehran To Sign Agreement on Building New Nuclear Power Plant

Local Editor

Moscow and Tehran will soon sign an agreement on the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the Islamic Republic, Iran's Foreign Minister announced.

"Iran has held consultations with the Russian side and soon an agreement of mutual understanding will be signed on the construction of a new nuclear power plant," Ali Akbar Salehi, Iranian foreign minister and former nuclear chief, said on Sunday.

He reiterated that Iran's nuclear program is purely peaceful, as the country needs nuclear power for electricity generation and medicine.

The statement comes ahead of the first meeting between Iran's newly elected President Hassan Rohani and Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 13. The talks are part of a Eurasian summit taking place in Kyrgyzstan's capital of Bishkek, a Russian presidential aide said Friday.

During his first press conference on Tuesday, Rohani said that Iran would continue negotiations with Russia on nuclear power development in the country.
"We need to get 20,000 megawatts of nuclear power. We have been negotiating on this. I hope that everything will develop according to schedule, and Iran will be able to continue to build nuclear power plants and continue to cooperate. The Iranian government will continue to negotiate with neighboring countries, one of which is Russia, to develop peaceful nuclear energy," he said.

For his part, Russian parliament speaker Sergey Naryshkin said during his visit to Iran on August 4 that Russia intends to expand cooperation in civilian nuclear power after Iran's nuclear power plant at Bushehr is fully commissioned in September.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team