Iran has agreed to Russia’s "step by step" plan to resume nuclear talks with the West, Iranian MP Hossein Naghavi Hosseini told Iran’s Reporters Club.
Naghavi Hosseini, a member of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said yesterday that Iran has informed the Russians that it accepts their plan, but so far no practical steps have been taken to implement it.
In July, Russia introduced a so-called "step by step" plan to resolve the impasse in nuclear talks between Iran and the G5+1.
Naghavi Hosseini went on to add: "If Russia’s Western allies keep to the step-by-step plan, Iran will, as before announce, its preparedness to cooperate and give transparent responses to the [International Atomic Energy Agency] in exchange for reduced sanctions."
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad previously had reacted to the "step by step" plan by saying Iran has already taken a step by cooperating with the agency.
The Iranian MP went on to say: "Since all of our nuclear activities are transparent, the Islamic Republic has no fear of answering all the agency’s questions and clarifying ambiguities and providing them with all the proof and documents in exchange for the easing of sanctions."
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi travelled to Russia in recent weeks to discuss the "step by step" plan.
Saeed Jalili, the head of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security, has invited Nicolai Patrushev his Russian counterpart, to visit Iran on August 14 to discuss the "step by step" plan.
The plan proposes that the IAEA would start asking questions of Iranian authorities regarding their nuclear activities, and at every step of the way, following every response, Iran would be rewarded with the loosening of some of the international sanctions against it.
Over the past two years, all attempts at resolving the G5+1 concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program have failed. While the West continues to insist that Iran is not fully forthcoming about its nuclear aims, Iran insists that all its nuclear ambitions are peaceful.
