“Iran has to prove it can be trusted”

2 Oct, 2009 17:11 / Updated 14 years ago

The Russian and French offer to enrich uranium for Iran’s peaceful purposes could be hampered by Tehran itself, Vladimir Sotnikov from the Institute of World Economy and International Relations told RT.

“In the past, Iranians several times accepted offers, for example from the Russian Federation, to enrich uranium on Russian soil, but then they suddenly refused to do so,” he said.

The most serious problem with Iran, Sotnikov says, is that they would “very much like to enrich uranium by themselves, on their own soil.”

“There was even this offer on behalf of Iran to set up an international enrichment center on Iranian soil,” he said.

Sotnikov noted that Iran has to prove to the international community that it is fully cooperative with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its principles, “consistent with the non-proliferation treaty and doesn’t have any secret nuclear installations and a secret weapon-oriented nuclear program.”

Only then can they “be trusted”.