Russia to Iran: Stop Building Enrichment Systems

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011Russia would rule out future multilateral or independent punitive measures against Iran if the Middle Eastern nation ended manufacturing of additional uranium enrichment centrifuges, Russia's top diplomat said on Sunday (see GSN, Sept. 26).
The U.N. Security Council has adopted four sanctions resolutions aimed at pressuring Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, which can generate fuel for civilian applications as well as material for weapons. Tehran, which long limited the refinement operation to a single known facility, has since June deployed uranium enrichment centrifuges at a separate hardened underground site and informed international auditors of plans to extend the effort to a third location (see GSN, Sept. 12). The government insists its atomic ambitions are purely peaceful.