By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called on Iran to fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over its nuclear programme, the Kremlin press service said.
It said Medvedev had discussed the issue with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the phone.
The president, the statement said, had “urged Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA to clarify all the remaining issues concerning the Iranian nuclear programme”.
Iran is currently under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment as demanded by the West, and says its enrichment activities are purely civilian in purpose.
It has denied accusations that it is trying to develop a nuclear weapon.
The statement said that Medvedev had once more expressed Russia’s view that the dispute over the Islamic republic’s controversial uranium enrichment programme should be resolved through diplomacy.
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana are scheduled to meet in Geneva Saturday to discuss an incentive package offered to Tehran for suspending its enrichment activities.
US Undersecretary of State William Burns is expected to attend the meeting as an observer.
Iran has said on several occasions that it was open to talks without preconditions and that enrichment activities were its “sovereign right” that could not be negotiated.