File image.
Exactly three months after the end of Israel’s war on Iran, the Islamic Republic has signed a very ambitious memorandum of understanding and cooperation in the construction of small nuclear power plants (NPPs) with Russia’s nuclear cooperation, Rosatom.
The agreement was signed by Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev and Iran’s top nuclear official, Mohammad Eslami, on September 24 at a meeting in Moscow. Rosatom described it in a statement as a “strategic project”.
“Following the meeting, the heads of the two countries’ delegations signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the construction of small nuclear power plants in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The document outlines specific steps aimed at implementing this strategic project in Iran,” the statement reads.
Nuclear cooperation between Rosatom and Iran goes back all the way to 1992 when Russia and Islamic Republic signed two agreements, on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy and on the continuation of the construction of the Iranian NPP near the city of Bushehr in southern Iran.
The construction of the NPP was launched in 1975 by a West German concern, but was interrupted in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution.
In 2011, the first power unit was connected to the grid, and was officially handed over to Iran in September 2013. Three years later, a contract was signed for the construction of the second stage of the NPP, which includes the second and third VVER-1000 power units. The cost of their construction stands at about $10 billion. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in September 2016, and construction began in 2019. The second and third power units are expected to be put into operation in 2025 and 2027, respectively.
Eslami, who is also Iran’s vice president, told Iranian state media earlier this week that the latest agreement with Rosatom includes the construction of eight nuclear power plants as Tehran seeks to reach 20GW of nuclear energy capacity by 2040.
The agreement came after the United Nations Security Council voted on September 19 not to permanently lift economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. The vote followed a 30-day process launched in late August by the United Kingdom, France and Germany, also known as the E3, to reinstate sanctions unless Tehran meets their demands.
The E3 have accused Tehran of breaching its nuclear commitments, including by building up a uranium stockpile of more than 40 times the level permitted under a 2015 nuclear deal, from which United States President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018, during his first term. The deal allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent purity.
Russia was one of four countries that voted to stop the sanctions from being reintroduced. Still, sanctions will return via the so-called “snapback” mechanism by September 28 if no deal is reached between Iran and the E3 beforehand.
The Islamic Republic has already warned that the return of sanctions would “effectively suspend” the country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stressed on September 23 Tehran will not directly negotiate with the U.S. over Iran’s nuclear programme, calling talks with Washington “a sheer dead end”. At the same time, he stressed that the Islamic Republic was not interested in nuclear weapons.
“Today, we have a high level of uranium enrichment. Of course, countries that want to create nuclear weapons increase it to 90%. Since we do not need weapons and have decided to abandon nuclear weapons, we have not increased it that much. We have increased it to 60%, which is a very high level, a very good level, necessary for solving some of the problems facing our country,” he said during a televised address to the Iranian people.
Despite being one of the largest oil and gas producers in the world, Iran still suffers from electricity shortages during high-demand months.
Emphasizing the same points, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly on September 24 that Tehran will “never seek to build a nuclear bomb.”
During his speech at the UN, Pezeshkian went on to accuse the E3 of acting “at the behest of the United States of America”.
“In doing so, they set aside good faith,” he told the assembly. “They circumvented legal obligations. They sought to portray Iran’s lawful remedial measures taken in response to the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA [the Iran nuclear deal] and to Europe’s breach and other incapacity as a gross violation.”
The move by the E3 is clearly meant to complement the war started by Israel on June 12 with the aim of destroying Iran’s nuclear program.
The U.S. joined the war, attacking three underground nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic just before a ceasefire was announced on June 24.
During the war, all of Iran’s key nuclear facilities were targeted by Israel and the U.S., expect for Bushehr, where 200 Russian engineers and operators of Rosatom are stationed there for technical support and operations.
The presence of these workers may have assured Israel that no suspicious activities were taking place in the NPP, and deterred it from attacking it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the war that Moscow sought and received assurances from both Israel and the U.S. that they would ensure the safety of Russian staff working at the reactor, without elaborating.
Bushehr emerged from the war as an example of how Iran, through cooperation with Russia, could go on with its peaceful nuclear program without facing threats from Israel. The latest agreement with Rosatom is clearly meant to copy this example on a wider scale.
While Israel showed objection to further nuclear cooperation between the two sides in the past, it is highly-unlikely that it will stand against this any more.
A nuclear agreement between the U.S. and Iran seems very much impossible with Trump in office. Israel understands that and knows very well that the Islamic Republic will not give up on its nuclear ambition. Considering all of this, the best Israel could get now is for Tehran to reach an understanding with the E3, and move forward with its program in cooperation with Russia.
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“received assurances from both israel and the u.s. that they would ensure the safety of russian staff working at the reactor, without elaborating.”
assurance not worth the paper.
couldn’t have spoke a truer word , i have lost count of the treacherous lies spoken by the usa and israel only action is truthful and both try to bring the world to a violent end by sheer arrogance.
this is where you notice the realities of the neo feudal system under global banking jewry. the nations and presidents are merely castles and bishops on the chess board. and things hardly make sense. how many times will putin try to play the one sided game the commonwealth itself owns?
iranians are like a raped sissis who allow the rapists to continue to rape them over and over and wont’n do dam thing because they say they are too nice and too peaceful. just like with guns, don’t play with nuclear if you are not willing to use it even to defend yourself.
last time i checked, israel ran to daddy trump after getting trillions upon trillions in infrastructure damage. and last time i checked, iran warned that if they start another war, it will be the last war israel starts.
big mistake. never trust chabad r*ssia, friend of isr*hell.
do i recall some time back mr poots’ verbally instructing old lavrov – ‘we support israel’ ? ?
great. . . i knew he wasn’t bullsh*tting the global south audience after all. he’s saint vladimir right ! ! (patron saint to the joos that is)
jew superior to primitive americunt species
everyone knows how it ends to the russian allies
nato and israel allies are forced to accept sodomy.
russia better option unless you prefer to lick peniz.
yes : victory.
what alawites are left in ex-syria may tend to disagree with your statement.
vladimir the weak needs assurances! lmao… not.worth.to.be.leader.of.russia. boris yeltsin 2.0
we weak 🤡 chihuahua americunt anuz filled w taliban jizz