UNITED NATIONS, March 2: Noting that Iran and Russia may be closer to an agreement on Iran’s enrichment programme, China on Wednesday asserted that the Iranian issue should be discussed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna and not at the UN Security Council.

In an interview Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya noted ‘that Iranians are in Moscow and we hope it will bring good news to all of us’.

Russia has urged Iran to freeze its domestic uranium enrichment programme as a condition for its offer to create a joint venture to enrich uranium for Tehran on Russian territory.

On Thursday Iran’s top nuclear negotiator insisted that bilateral talks should continue on a Russian offer to enrich uranium for Iran and warned that handing over the nuclear issue to the UN Security Council would kill Moscow’s initiative.

“America is lying, trying to destroy the Russian proposal,” Ali Larijani said at a news conference in Moscow. “The Americans’ insistence on handing over the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council means the destruction of the Russian proposal.”