Russia rejects U.S. call to quit Iran power plant

Russia on Thursday rejected a request from the United States for its engineers to halt work on Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station. Russia's state atomic energy agency is contracted to help Iran build the $1 billion reactor. A senior U.S. official said on Wednesday that a Russian withdrawal would help persuade Iran to abandon a separate uranium enrichment program. "Every country has the right to decide for itself with whom and in what way it cooperates with other states," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a comment posted on the official web site www.mid.ru. Only the United Nations Security Council has the power to require a state to halt cooperation and the U.N. body has never made any such ruling on Bushehr, Kamynin said.