At their Oct. 1 meeting in Geneva, representatives from Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany) appeared to make considerable progress. The Iranian government representative agreed to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect its recently revealed second, secret uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qum. Iran also expressed interest "in principle" in sending its stockpiles of low enriched uranium to Russia and France for further enrichment and conversion into fuel rods for an experimental reactor used for medical purposes.
Russia's role in helping secure these developments remains unclear. Russian leaders clearly do not want Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, due to concerns about Iran's perceived unpredictability and fears about Tehran's long-term ambitions to compete with Moscow for dominance over Eurasia. ...
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