Russian Delegation Advocating Confrontation With West, Pays Visit To Tehran
Russia’s ex-prime minister Sergei Kirienko, now head of Russian atomic energy commission arrived in Tehran Friday, Feb. 24, to continue talks on the transfer of some Iranian uranium enrichment activities to Russia.

DEBKAfile adds: Kirienko leads a Kremlin faction that advocates breaking ranks with Washington and Europe and striking out for a bilateral Moscow-Tehran deal that lets the Islamic republic forge ahead, under certain conditions, with its nuclear program. In contrast, President Vladimir Putin prefers continued joint action with the West. But he appears to have been overruled – hence the Kirienko delegation in Tehran.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources add: Washington and Jerusalem are troubled most by the prospect of the Kirienka delegation, which does not include a single pro-American member, drafting an accord for hands-on Iranian involvement in the joint uranium enrichment venture on Russian soil. They would be allowed a say in the manufacturing process and the decisions on quantities and grade of the product. This would nullify the means for preventing the Russian-Iranian enterprise turning out weapons-grade uranium.

According to information reaching Washington and Jerusalem, Kirienko also favors letting Iran continue enrichment at home simultaneously with the Russian-hosted enterprise.

American and Israeli suspicions were first aroused, according to our intelligence sources, by the odd behavior of the Iranian delegation led by Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, head of the atomic energy commission, upon its arrival in Moscow Monday, Feb. 20, to discuss the joint plant in Russia. Its maneuvers had the appearance of a decoy operation to mystify and draw attention away from the real action elsewhere. A bulletin at the end of the day reported no progress, followed by a continuation Tuesday, which the Iranians abruptly left without explanation. Then, too, an Iranian official demanded that resumed diplomacy with the European Union take place separately with each government instead of with a joint UK-French-German delegation.

This was taken in Washington as step to divorce the Tehran-Moscow track from Iran’s talks with Europe and its dealings with the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna.

Kirienko’s mission to Tehran is being watched closely because a Russian-Iranian accord negotiated by him will change the rules of international conduct towards Iran’s nuclear activities:

1. Moscow’s original hosting plan approved by Washington and the EU denied Tehran permission to enrich uranium outside the joint plant in Russia or seat its representative in production management. The Kirienko plan departs drastically from that text.

2. In the new circumstances, Russia is bound to bring a separate draft to the UN Security Council debate on Iran to counter – or even defeat by veto - any effective resolution the US-European bloc may initiate to halt Iran’s advance towards a nuclear weapon.