The agreement between Rosatom and Iran points to the expansion of energy with eight new nuclear plants planned by 2040.
Posted on September 24, 2025
Russia and Iran have signed a memorandum of understanding about the construction of small nuclear plants in Iran, according to the Nuclear Corporation of the Russian State Rosatom, since Tehran has been involved in a diplomatic impulse to avoid new sanctions on its nuclear program.
The agreement was signed by the head of Rosatom, Alexei Likachev and the top nuclear official of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, on Wednesday at a meeting in Moscow. Rosatom described it as a “strategic project.”
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Eslami, who is also the vice president of Iran, told Iranian state media earlier this week that the plan was to build eight nuclear energy plants while Tehran seeks to reach 20 GW of nuclear energy capacity by 2040.
Iran, who suffers from electricity shortage during the months of high demand, has only an operational nuclear energy plant, in the southern city of Bushehr. It was built by Russia and has a capacity of approximately 1GW.
Development occurs in the midst of imminent sanctions to Iran, after the United Nations Security Council voted on Friday not to permanently lift Iran economic sanctions on its nuclear program, which means that sanctions will return before September 28 if a significant agreement is not reached beforehand.
Russia was among the four nations that voted to prevent the sanctions from being reintroduced.
Iran rejected the vote of the CSNU, saying that the resumption of sanctions “would effectively suspend” the cooperation of the country with the International Atomic Energy Agency (OIEA), the UN gifts.
The vote followed a 30 -day process launched at the end of August by the United Kingdom, France and Germany, known as the E3, to restore the sanctions unless they will meet their demands.
The E3 has accused Tehran of violating its nuclear commitments, even through the construction of uranium storage of more than 40 times the level allowed under a 2015 nuclear agreement, from which Trump withdrew unilaterally in 2018, during his first mandate. The agreement allowed Iran to enrich Uranium up to 3.67 percent of purity.
In his defense, Iran says that he increased his nuclear enrichment only after Trump retired from the agreement and reimputed the sanctions to the country. Tehran considers that American action is a violation of the 2015 agreement.
Iranian officials have accused the European trio of abusing the dispute mechanism contained in the 2015 Treaty on the non -proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT), which allows the application of sanctions under a “Snapback mechanism”.
The new sanctions would result in the freezing of Iranian assets abroad, a weapon arrest treatment with Tehran and penalize the development of the Balistic missile program, among other measures.
Iran has repeatedly denied the persecution of nuclear weapons, but affirmed its right to pacificly pursue nuclear energy. When heading to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Iran's president, Masoud Peeshkian, said Tehran would never look for a nuclear bomb.
On Tuesday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatolá Ali Khamenei, said Tehran will not negotiate directly with the United States about Iran's nuclear program, calling conversations with the United States “a dead end.”
The tensions intensified this June, when Israel launched a 12 -day war against Iran, with the Israeli and American forces that hit several nuclear facilities.
