Medvedev: CIA warning on Iranian nukes ‘troubling’

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday that a CIA warning that Iran has enough uranium to build two atomic bombs was “worrying,” and criticised Tehran’s secrecy over its nuclear program.

“This information has to be checked but such information is always worrying and all the more so because the international community does not recognise the Iranian nuclear program as transparent,” he told reporters.

Earlier, US spy chief Leon Panetta had said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) believes Iran now has enough low-enriched uranium to produce two nuclear weapons if it finds a way to further enrich it.

Russia has traditionally been an ally of Iran, but Medvedev has expressed increasing public concern over its nuclear program, which Washington and other Western capitals fear is on course to build a nuclear weapon.

Despite complaints from the West, Russia is helping build Iran’s first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. In 2008 Russian energy giant Gazprom signed an agreement with Iran to develop its oil and gas fields.

Russia, which unlike the United States has diplomatic ties with Iran, has in the past been reluctant to impose tough sanctions but backed the latest UN move following Tehran’s repeated defiance of orders to halt uranium enrichment.