The New Dark Age

19 August, 2010 — RT.com

‘Russia did not build the station in Bushehr so that somebody could bomb it,’ Rogozin stressed. ‘It is part of civilian infrastructure and has nothing to do with the military. It was built in accordance with all IAEA guidelines, all agreements and international laws. An attack against this civilian facility should be considered exactly as the use of military force against civilian infrastructure facility,’ he told RT.

The physical launch of the Russian-built nuclear power station is scheduled for Saturday, August 21, when, under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the deliveries of fuel to the reactor will begin. The long awaited event – which has been repeatedly put off – marks the end of tests at the nuclear power plant and the beginning of the startup.

Head of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom Sergey Kirienko underlined that the event proves that ‘Russia always meets its liabilities’.

‘This meets exactly Russia’s position that any country in the world is entitled to peaceful uses of atomic energy under the IAEA’s control and meeting all requirements,’ he said at a meeting with Premier Vladimir Putin, cites Itar-Tass.

According to Rogozin, it is strange that certain people advocate destruction of such civilian facilities as the Bushehr nuclear power plant in newspaper publications. ‘I guess you can put whatever you want on paper,’ he added.

Recently, it has been widely speculated in the media that Israel was mulling over an attack on Iran using the planned launch of the nuclear power plant in the Islamic Republic as an excuse. Adding fuel to the fire, former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said in an interview with Fox News that Israel has until the weekend to launch a strike. Holding off would be too late: once the reactor is loaded with the fuel, it would no longer be possible because of the risk of radiation spreading, which Israel wants to avoid. Without a military strike, he said, Tehran would ‘achieve something that no other opponent of Israel, no other enemy of the United States in the Middle East really has, and that is a functioning nuclear reactor.’

Dmitry Rogozin insists that if someone has doubts about the peaceful nature of such facilities, they should share their concerns with the organizations responsible for building these plants. ‘In the case of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, they should contact the IAEA and Moscow,’ he said.

The Russian envoy to NATO underlined that the Bushehr nuclear power plant has nothing to do with the military and it would be a crime to use military force against civilian facilities. The diplomat reminded that Russia closely co-operated with the UN and China, a Security Council member, over the peaceful nature of the Bushehr nuclear project.

‘Iran is our neighbor, and Russia definitely is not interested in having a nuclear power for a neighbor,’ he stressed. Moreover, it is technically impossible to convert the Bushehr power plant into a military facility ‘because of its operating conditions, fuel quality and other technical parameters’

Also, Rogozin ruled out the very possibility of NATO attacking Iran.

‘Iran does not belong to NATO’s sphere of competence. NATO and its forces cannot possibly have anything to do with the threats to attack Bushehr. Iran is outside NATO’s operation area. NATO always operates based on a bilateral agreement. In this case, NATO is not even discussing the possibility of attacking Iran. With the way things are going in Afghanistan, they have enough on their plate without Iran,’ he said.