Russia fuels Iran's atomic bid

The US says that any contribution to Iran's nuclear know-how can build Iran's nuclear potential, though under the NPT, any signatory nation has the right to pursue peaceful nuclear programs.

But many Western capitals worry that the trajectory of Iran's nuclear program - though declared to be for peaceful purposes only - is aimed at building nuclear weapons.

Throughout the IAEA inspection process, Iran has been engaged diplomatically with Britain, France, and Germany in an attempt to forestall a US effort to haul Iran before the United Nations Security Council.

There, Iran would be expected to explain NPT violations that the US would like to see lead to sanctions or more severe action.

European diplomats forged a deal with Tehran late last year that led to Iran's suspension of all enrichment activities. But last Friday, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, reaffirmed that Iran had "no such intention" of ever meeting US and European demands to permanently end enrichment plans.

"Should any Iranian government ever accept a uranium enrichment stop, it would collapse the very same day," Mr. Rohani said, according to Iran's state news agency.

In a neighborhood that counts Israel, Pakistan, and India as nuclear-armed, pursuit of nuclear weapons is a rare issue that transcends deep political divisions and unites many Iranians.

"They have no legal obligation, of course, to legally suspend, but the Western countries do want that because they see the technology as too sensitive," says the Vienna diplomat, who wished not to be named. "It's a challenge for diplomacy to find a way to convince Iran to give up something that they have a legal right to."

American pressure on Moscow and the three European nations to take a tougher line on Iran has been challenged at the IAEA and by Iran itself, which claims that it is being deprived of its right to develop nuclear expertise, while other nations - notably Iran's sworn enemy, Israel - have gotten away with undeclared programs.

"One of Iran's main gambits has been to say that the US is going to get in the way of our purchases of fuel, so we need the fuel cycle," says Levi. "So it may not be in America's best interest to complain about this deal too much - especially when there is nothing they can do about it."

Still, US Senator John McCain, (R) of Ariz., said Sunday that the US should bar Russia from this year's G-8 conference to protest Moscow's recent "aberrational" actions, including the nuclear- fuel deal with Iran.

The Russians, too, appear to have increased their concern - and therefore, their demands for safeguards in the nuclear-fuel process - about Iran's nuclear intentions.

"They don't want a nuclear-weapons state [near] their borders," says the diplomat, echoing several analysts. "If there is a problem in Iran, it's the enrichment program, not the reactor."

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