Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Remarks on Iran with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Excerpts)

March 18, 2010

Weapon Program: 

  • Nuclear

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QUESTION: And Secretary Clinton, in a related question, the Russians announced today that they will start up the Bushehr - their nuclear reactor, Bushehr, this summer. Are you concerned about the signal that sends? Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV: (In Russian.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: With respect to your question to me, that is something that we will be discussing not only with Russia, but with our other partners. But we have consistently said that Iran is entitled to civil nuclear power. It is a nuclear weapons program that it is not entitled to. And if it reassures the world, or if its behavior is changed because of international sanctions, then they can pursue peaceful, civil nuclear power. In the absence of those reassurances, we think it would be premature to go forward with any project at this time, because we want to send an unequivocal message to the Iranians.

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