UPDATE 1-Russia says eyes atomic energy cooperation with Syria

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Tue May 11, 2010 6:04am EDT

(Adds background, context)

DAMASCUS May 11 (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that he hoped cooperation with Syria in the oil, gas and atomic energy sectors will be increased.

"Cooperation on atomic energy (with Syria) could get a second wind," Medvedev said at a press conference with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

Medvedev gave no further details on what nuclear cooperation had been discussed.

Russian news agencies quoted Assad as saying that he had discussed with Medvedev the possibility of building power plants, including nuclear ones, in Syria.

Russia says all nations have the right to peaceful nuclear power programmes and is due this year to start up an atomic power station a Russian state company has built in Iran.

When speaking about Iran's nuclear programme, Medvedev called for "constructive cooperation" with the international community on Iran's part.

The United States and some European countries believe Iran's nuclear programme is a front for an effort to develop atomic weapons. Iran denies it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

(Reporting by Denis Dyomkin, writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Steve Gutterman)

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Comments (19)
US1 wrote:
Russia will always be an enemy of the US
as long as it acts like an enemy of the US. Period. Russia will always align itself with our enemies time and time again. Their only problem is that these countries offer no long term return on investment. They will crawl back over and over each time their weak petrobased economy wanes. And it will happen again.

May 11, 2010 8:19am EDT  --  Report as abuse
Russia1 wrote:
US is not an enemy of Russia even though it always acts like an enemy of Russia. Comma. Russia will always align itself with those countries which are good to do business with. Petrobased economy is a weak one, but economy based on debt can get even weaker. We still wish well to every nation.

May 11, 2010 9:19am EDT  --  Report as abuse
realisttimestwo wrote:
We’ve never been to war with Russia and the cold-war was just an influence war to see whose empire could stretch the farthest, think money as always. Communism is dead. Russia is another country that is all. Syria is hardly our enemy as we have never been to war with Syria either. Syria’s support of Palestinians is not grounds for their being our enemy. They are right when it comes to Palestine. I support any country moving away from fossil fuels, whether that be nuclear, wind, tidal, solar, or whatever other type of non-polluting method they choose.

May 11, 2010 9:19am EDT  --  Report as abuse
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