By DPA
Moscow : Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday called on Iran to promptly address the international community’s outstanding concerns over its atomic energy programme.
Meeting with Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili in Moscow, Putin urged the Iranian leadership to “most seriously concern itself” with the demands of international watchdog agencies, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the talks.
The president congratulated Iran on its cooperation with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, but said Tehran must “urgently address all outstanding questions, including appeals to halt its uranium enrichment programme,” news agency Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying.
According to a new US intelligence report, Iran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 but continues to enrich uranium, which can be used to build nuclear weapons, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
Iran claims its atomic energy programme is purely for civilian use, but the US fears it is a cover for nuclear ambitions and has initiated UN Security Council sanctions against Iran.
The US National Intelligence Estimate released Monday was welcomed by Russian and Iranian leaders Wednesday as a sign of the lack of proof underpinning the US administration’s push for a third round of Security Council sanctions against Iran.
Russia has said it would oppose such measures, and promised to continue building Iran’s first nuclear power plant in Bushehr.