Iran Signs Nuclear Fuel Deal With Russia

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BUSHEHR, Iran Feb 28, 2005 — Iran and Russia ignored U.S. objections and signed a nuclear fuel agreement Sunday that is key to bringing Tehran's first reactor online by mid-2006.

The long-delayed deal, signed at the heavily guarded Bushehr nuclear facility in southern Iran, came on the eve of a meeting of the board of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss concerns about Iran's nuclear program.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog meeting takes place amid revelations that members of a black market network had handed Iran all the basic knowledge the Middle Eastern country needed to set up technology that can be used to make atomic weapons by the late 1980s.more..