Iran on Monday handed over to Russia a stockpile of enriched Iranian uranium that had for years generated tensions in the Middle East and beyond, fulfilling an important step in the nuclear deal struck last summer with world powers.
Ridding Iran of the enriched uranium was one goal of the multistep agreement signed in July between Iran and its major negotiating partners - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - to guarantee that Iran's nuclear activities remain peaceful.
A Russian ship, the Mikhail Dudin, departed a port in Iran on Monday carrying the uranium, said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Rosatom, Russia's civilian nuclear company, in a telephone interview.
In exchange for relinquishing the enriched uranium, Iran will receive from Russia a shipment of raw uranium containing an equivalent amount of the isotope U-235 that was present in the enriched uranium, Tass reported.