On Tuesday, western media published excerpts from the IAEA director general's confidential report, due to be officially presented in Vienna on September 10 to the IAEA's Board of Governors. The document calls Tehran's consent to answer questions on its nuclear program a considerable step forward, but says Iran should make additional efforts to prove that the program has peaceful goals.
"We regard this plan as a positive step. It is important that the agreement be honored by Iran... which will be conducive to resolving Tehran's nuclear problem," Mikhail Kamynin said, adding that said Moscow is still studying the document.
Iran Thursday welcomed the report.
"We thank the International Atomic Nuclear Agency [IAEA] for their professional approach to the issue [of the Iranian nuclear file] and hope the agency will continue in this direction," deputy director of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Saeedi, told Iran's official news agency IRNA.
Saeedi quoted the report as saying that Tehran had resolved all IAEA issues regarding experiments with plutonium, and that the agency considers the issue closed.
"The IAEA therefore gave a negative response to groundless accusations from the U.S. against Iran," he said, adding that Tehran is ready to continue cooperation with the IAEA to resolve the remaining issues over the country's nuclear program.
Iran, which Western countries suspect of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program, recently intensified cooperation with the IAEA, and invited weapons inspectors to visit a 40-MW heavy water reactor in Arak in late July.
Iran has defied three consecutive UN resolutions against its nuclear program since last year. The six countries negotiating the dispute - permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany - have demanded that Tehran suspend all uranium enrichment before negotiating a solution to the dispute.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in early April the start of uranium enrichment on an industrial scale.
