Iran makes Bushehr payment to Russia after freeze http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2653406620070326
Mon Mar 26, 2007
By Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Iran has resumed paying Russia for building the Bushehr nuclear power station, Russian officials said on Monday, easing a payments row that has delayed the Islamic Republic's first nuclear power plant. Russia is Tehran's closest big-power ally and has helped water down international sanctions over Iran's nuclear program but analysts said the Bushehr dispute showed the Kremlin's patience with Iran was wearing thin.
Russia's atomic energy agency said on Monday that Iran had made a payment for Bushehr equal to about half a scheduled monthly installment, but it was still in arrears. Iran is supposed to pay about $25 million a month.
"It is positive that our Iranian partners have overcome their difficulties, but this by no means compensates for the period of non-payments," said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Rosatom agency.
"The Russian side is awaiting more such action.,"
Russian and Iranian officials have clashed angrily over what Moscow says are tens of millions of dollars in missed payments for building the plant in southwest Iran. Russia says Tehran stopped making payments late last year. In response, Russia delayed sending nuclear fuel to the Bushehr plant this month and said the launch of the power station would also be delayed.
Analysts said Moscow is taking a tougher line with Tehran because of concerns about Tehran's nuclear program and impatience with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted on Saturday to impose new sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambitions. The sanctions will target Tehran's arms exports, state-owned banks and the elite Revolutionary Guards. The United States and some European Union countries suspect Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian atomic energy program.
Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, voted for the U.N. sanctions but warned last week it will not support "excessive" measures against Iran.
Moscow says Iran is far from creating nuclear weapons but Russian officials have privately expressed exasperation with Tehran's negotiating tactics and denounced Ahmadinejad's more radical pronouncements.
Reacting to the latest sanctions, Iran said it would not halt its atomic program "even for one second" and said it would limit cooperation with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.
Rosatom said Atomstroiexport, the state-owned Russian contractor helping build the Bushehr plant, is continuing work at the Bushehr site but that the payment problems had delayed work at the plant.
"Atomstroiexport is continuing work at the site and more than 2000 Russian specialists are working there," Novikov said.
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