Ahead of the inauguration of Iran’s first nuclear power plant, Iranian and Russian officials attended a joint press conference and gave assurance about the safety of the facility

Ahead of the inauguration of Iran's first nuclear power plant, Iranian and Russian officials attended a joint press conference and gave assurance about the safety of the facility.

In a joint press conference in the capital, Tehran, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko both sought to reassure the international community on the safety of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.

“To do with the peaceful use of nuclear energy, it has always been said that Iran is a member of the [Nuclear] Non-Proliferation Treaty [NPT]. Iran is committed to all the international commitments existing within the framework of the NPT and the [International Atomic Energy Agency] IAEA's charter,” Salehi said Sunday.

“And it has been on the same basis that Russia has cooperated with us in completing the Bushehr [nuclear] power plant,” he added.

The Russian foreign minister for his part said that nuclear projects, particularly those which are under the International Atomic Energy Agency's supervision, should attain the approval of the agency.

“The Bushehr nuclear power plant has been built, meeting all the international standards and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA],” Shmatko said.

“No diversion has taken place from the international standards at the Bushehr Power Plant and issues have been accomplished in an accurate fashion and with the observation of the international expertise.”

The Iranian foreign minister repeated Tehran's condemnation of the coordinated terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, which killed a total of around 3,000 people.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, based on its general policies and also based on its religious and moral beliefs, has consistently decried any terrorist act leading to the death of innocent people.”

Addressing the issue of the US-led NATO's plans to operate an 'early warning' radar system in Turkey by the end of 2011, Shmatko voiced Moscow's opposition to the plan, stressing that "Moscow's position has not changed essentially."

The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that Turkey's collaboration with NATO would mark another step in the direction of the deployment "of the European segment of a global US missile defense system."

Moscow has demanded "firm, legally-binding guarantees that the anti-missile systems deployed in Europe are not aimed at the strategic nuclear forces of Russia."