WASHINGTON, Jan 9: The United States believes that Russia must do much more to stem its nuclear cooperation with Iran to prevent Tehran from producing weapons of mass destruction, Washington’s ambassador to Moscow said on Thursday.

The envoy, Alexander Vershbow, told reporters at the State Department that Russian assistance to Iran — including its work on the Bushehr nuclear reactor and cooperation on missile technology — was exacerbating the threats posed by Tehran.

“The Russians need to close the leaks in the technology for both nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to Iran and fully contain the proliferation risks of the Bushehr reactor,” he said.

Vershbow said a Russian-Iranian accord for Tehran to return nuclear waste to Moscow from the Bushehr reactor was welcomed but fell far short of what the United States wanted from Russia on the matter.

“That’s a positive step but it’s not enough,” he said.

A senior State Department official later said Washington wanted to see a major shift in the way Russia deals with Iran on sensitive technologies.

“We’re looking for a more fundamental shift in their relationship with Iran in this area,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said the United States, which has which has branded Iran part of an “axis of evil” bent on acquiring nuclear weapons, had the impression that Russia had been misled by Tehran about the nature of its intentions.

“They may have had an overly benign intepretation of the Iranians’ ultimate intentions regarding acquiring weapons as opposed to atomic energy,” the official said.

“They have also underestimated the technical proficiency of the Iranian scientists and engineers to exploit the technology and go beyond nuclear power reactors,” the official added.

However, the official said there were signs that Moscow was beginning to understand and realize that any commericial benefits to dealing with Tehran in nuclear technology could be outweighed by potential deals with the United States which are now prohibited.

“I think their own assessments are beginning to get more sober about Iranian intentions,” the official said, citing the nuclear waste agreement as one example.

“They are beginning to recognize that there may be much more lucrative possibilties with the United States that are blocked as long as they don’t tighten up their controls on cooperation with Iran,” the official said.—AFP