MOSCOW, January 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is urging Iran to re-impose the moratorium on its nuclear research, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.
Spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said: "We are again calling on Iran to revise its decisions, return to the moratorium, and maintain full and transparent cooperation with the IAEA."
Tehran announced Tuesday that it was resuming research into uranium enrichment, which some nations fear will be used to develop nuclear weapons, although the country insists it only wants nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Iran removed the UN seals at its nuclear facilities this week thereby ending a two-year moratorium on nuclear research.
Kamynin also said Russia was studying the practicality of referring the Iranian "nuclear file" to the UN Security Council.
"We are studying proposals to convene an emergency session of the IAEA's Board of Governors, which will decide the agency's further steps with respect to Iran," the diplomat said.
Germany, Britain, and France, the European trio that helped broker the moratorium two years ago, said that they would call the emergency session of the 35-member board of the UN's nuclear watchdog after talks with Iran had reached a "dead end."
Iran argues it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes as a party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Friday his country was willing to continue talks with the trio on condition the latter were prepared to discuss nuclear fuel production.
Kamynin said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would meet with his counterparts from Germany, Britain, and France to discuss the Iran issue. Austrian ambassador in Moscow, Martin Vukovich, said earlier in the day that Lavrov's meeting with the European ministers would take place in Vienna February 15.
"We will hold discussions with the trio, as well as other parties involved, to find adequate ways to settle the situation surrounding Iran's nuclear program by diplomatic means," Kamynin said.
