Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has assured Russia that Tehran has no plans to build nuclear weapons and is willing to resume six-party talks.
“Iran's President stated unambiguously that his country has no intention to acquire nuclear weapons,” said Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Astana, Kazakhstan, where the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) held its 10th anniversary summit on Wednesday.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed Iran's nuclear programme at a trilateral meeting with Mr. Ahmadinejad and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev before holding a one-to-one meeting with the Iranian leader on the sidelines of the SCO summit.
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Mr. Ahmadinejad promised to share more information about Iran's nuclear programme with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and said Tehran was ready to reopen talks with the group of six without any intermediaries.
“We heard the Iranian President's assurances that additional measures would be taken to increase the transparency of Iran's nuclear programme in the framework of Tehran's contacts with the IAEA,” said Mr. Lavrov, briefing reporters on the Medvedev-Ahmadinejad meeting.
Iran attended the SCO summit as an observer in the six-member regional security group.
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At a separate meeting with Mr. Ahmadinejad on Wednesday, Chinese President Hu Jintao was quoted as urging Iran to participate in the six-party talks and make greater efforts to “establish trust” and “speed up the process of dialogue”.