Dispute Halts Delivery Of Atomic Fuel to Iran

Washington Post ^ | March 13, 2007 | Dispute Halts Delivery Of Atomic Fuel to Iran

[Lorianne]

MOSCOW, March 12 -- Russian officials said Monday that nuclear fuel will not be delivered to Iran this month as planned and that the September completion of a Russian-built nuclear power plant will be postponed because of an escalating dispute between the two countries.

Moscow and Tehran have been arguing for weeks over what Russia calls Iran's failure to make $25 million monthly payments on the $1 billion plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Iran insists that it has made all scheduled payments.

"It will be impossible to launch the reactor in September, and there can be no talk about supplying fuel this month," the state-owned Russian contractor Atomstroiexport said in a statement Monday.

Underlying the financial dispute appears to be increasing Russian hostility to Iran's suspected desire to build nuclear weapons and its flouting of international demands that it stop the enrichment of uranium and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The delivery of nuclear fuel would be a major boost for the Iranians. "We hope the Russians won't politicize" the delivery, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sunday, according to news agencies. "This should be done within the next two weeks. We expect the Russians to fulfill their commitments."

[Cheburashka]

Interesting that the Iranians are having problems scraping together a mere $25 million each month to keep their account current. They being an oil-exporting country and all, it should be a piece of cake.