Hillary Clinton, Russians clash publicly over Iran reactor
LATimes / Megan K. Stacks
18-Mar-2010

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had barely arrived in Moscow for nuclear arms and Mideast talks when tensions over Iran flared up publicly Thursday.

Meeting reporters alongside her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Clinton reproached Moscow for building and fueling a nuclear power plant in Iran. Tehran is not entitled to generate nuclear energy for civilian purposes, Clinton said pointedly, until it puts to rest suspicion that it is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian-built reactor would begin to generate electricity in Iran as early as this summer.

"If [Iran] reassures the world, or if its behavior is changed because of international sanctions, then they can pursue peaceful, civil nuclear power," Clinton said. "In the absence of these reassurances, we think it would be premature to go forward with any project at this time because we want to send an unequivocal message to the Iranians."

At her side, Lavrov held his ground.

"Russia is involved, and this project will be completed," Lavrov said. "This nuclear power plant will finally be launched, and it will generate electricity."

Lavrov argued that the plant is crucial to the International Atomic Energy Agency's presence in Iran, providing a foothold for monitoring whether Tehran complies with nonproliferation requirements.

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