The Russian nuclear equipment and services monopoly, Atomstroyexport, the contractor for the Bushehr NPP in Iran's south, said Tuesday that Tehran has not made payments for the $1 billion NPP project for over a month.
A delegation of the upper house of Russia's parliament, headed by senator Mikhail Margelov, visited Tehran February 19-21 to discuss the Iranian nuclear program, interregional cooperation and expanding inter-parliamentary ties.
"Of course, during meetings with representatives of the Iranian leadership, the issue of the Iranian nuclear program was touched upon. Our Iranian colleagues lamented the news of delays in the construction of the Bushehr NPP. However, we told them that there is a market economy in our country and that people responsible for economics count money first of all," Margelov said commenting on his Iran visit.
Atomstroyexport said Iran paid 60% of the required sum in the fourth quarter of 2006, $5.1 million in January and nothing in February yet, whereas, according to an agreement signed last September, Iran must make monthly payments of $25 million for the construction of the plant.
The Bushehr facility, scheduled to be commissioned in the second half of 2007, after the original date at the end of 2006 was delayed, has been a source of international dispute, with the United States and other Western countries, raising concerns that Iran could use the project as part of a covert weapons program. Iran has consistently denied that its nuclear program has military goals.
Margelov also said: "It is clear that no hidden political subtext should be inferred from the news of construction delays. Russia respects its commitments, including in the commercial sphere."
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in December imposing sanctions against Iran.
Russia, a key economic partner of Iran, has consistently supported the Islamic Republic's right to nuclear power under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and has resisted the imposition of harsh sanctions.
Russia is building Iran's first nuclear power plant under a contract signed in 1995.
