Russian proposal which is backed by Washington and the European Union, involves the creation of a joint Iranian-Russian company to enrich uranium in Russia.
The plan has been put forward by Moscow to try to allay international concerns that Iranian regime could manufacture highly enriched uranium on its own soil to build atomic weapons.
Vaeedi said that the regime had only agreed to study Moscow’s joint-venture proposal on the assumption that it did not affect its plans to develop a full nuclear fuel cycle, including enrichment, at home.
"Securing Iran’s rights, based on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to enrich uranium on Iran’s soil within the framework of International Atomic Energy Agency regulations would be the first assumption for assessing Russia’s proposal," Vaeedi was quoted as saying.
Calling the Russian plan an "idea" he said: "Iran takes seriously new proposals and ideas aimed at finding a peaceful solution to its nuclear problem and can review them."
EU diplomats and arms control experts have noted that Tehran has been careful to stop short of rejecting Moscow’s plan.
Doing so could see Moscow drop its earlier opposition to EU and U.S. efforts to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, they say.
Earlier this month the NCRI’s Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Mohammad Mohaddessin described the Tehran regime’s new advances in nuclear projects as a product of the failure of the international community to adopt a firm policy vis-ÃÂ -vis the clerical regime.
Mohaddessin reiterated, “At a time when the president of the mullahs’ regime threatens regional and global peace and tranquility and calls for the establishment of a global Islamic empire, any hesitation in referring Tehran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council for imposing comprehensive sanctions, will move the region and the world closer to a tragedy.”