Vladimir Putin backs Iran's right to enrich Uranium

Tehran: Iran is entitled to have nuclear enrichment and nobody should try to derive unilateral benefit from the situation, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

"I can say with no exaggeration that Russia makes a significant contribution to the settlement of the situation around the Iranian nuclear programme," IRNA quoted Putin as saying in an interview with an Egyptian daily Sunday.

"Our position is based on the belief that Iran has a right to peaceful nuclear activity including uranium enrichment, naturally under the control of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)," he added.

He said it was not an easy task to convince the partners from the P5+1 group of world powers to agree with this approach.

"At first, we continuously asked all the parties involved to sit down at the negotiations table and start a serious discussion on the ways to resolve this problem."

The P5+1 group includes Russia, the US, Britain, China, France plus Germany.

The Russian president said Moscow has tried to convince them that there was no alternative to the political and diplomatic settlement.

"Then, we proposed a conceptual framework to advance along this way -- the principles of the stage-by-stage movement and reciprocity. And such an approach was supported by all the participants in the process."

Putin said the negotiations were well under way now and substantial progress has been made.

However, he added that a final comprehensive solution have not been managed yet either regarding the Iranian nuclear programme itself or the prospects of lifting the sanctions.

President Putin concluded by saying, "We expect the efforts in this field to continue. The crucial point is that nobody should try to derive unilateral benefit from the situation or to bargain out more than what is needed for a balanced and just resolution of this complicated issue."

IANS