MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti) - The heads of the Russian and United States foreign offices expressed their disappointment over Iran's decision to abandon the nuclear moratorium, the Russian foreign ministry said Wednesday.
In a telephone conversation Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart Condoleezza Rice discussed the announcement made by Iran last week that it would restart work on nuclear fuel technologies after a two-year break.
"The general feeling, in the light of continuing issues relating to Iran's nuclear program, was disappointment over Tehran's decision to abandon the moratorium and restart research in the sphere of uranium-enrichment," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Iran initially suspended its nuclear research two years ago after negotiations with the EU trio of France, Germany and Britain that were intended to help shore up the international community's faith in its nuclear program.
Hamid Reza Asefi, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said last Sunday that Europe's "double standards" in nuclear research were unacceptable and that nuclear research had nothing to do with nuclear fuel production.
Asefi's comments followed an EU statement January 7 expressing regret that Iran had announced the resumption of nuclear research at a time when international confidence in its nuclear development program was far from being restored.
The statement also said that Iran's move would jeopardize further negotiations with "the EU troika" on the issue.
Tehran had earlier informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran would resume practical research in nuclear fuel technology in the near future, Asefi said. Iran, like the other parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, had the right to carry out nuclear research under the IAEA's supervision, he added.
The EU and the U.S. have consistently expressed concerns that Iran might pursue nuclear research for military purposes, as uranium enrichment, which is part of nuclear fuel technology, can be used to produce nuclear weapons as well as nuclear reactor fuel.
