Iranian specialists will complete works on redesigning the core of the heavy water reactor in Arak in two-three weeks, Russia’s permanent representative at international organizations in Vienna told journalists on Wednesday, TASS reported.

“Iranians say this work can be completed in 2-3 weeks,” Voronkov said. “They say it is attainable in the rather short timeframe,” Vladimir Voronkov said.

The diplomat noted that Iran is working on reactor core redesigning together with China and the United States. “Formal organizational and technical issues exist but from the point of view of implementation everything is proceeding in the routine mode,” Voronkov stressed. “This issue will disappear from the agenda in 2-3 weeks,” he said.

Voronkov also said Iran will also send the surplus amount of enriched uranium to Russia in the coming days.

“The logistics have been established through the port at Bushehr and it [enriched uranium] will be loaded and sent to Russia in coming days,” the envoy said.

According to Voronkov, the success of the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program has made it possible for the world community to focus on the Syrian settlement.

“Work on Syria began only after an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program was reached,” he said. “Everyone felt that it was possible to negotiate. Not to scare each other, not to pound each other but to negotiate.” According to him, the idea of applying a multilateral format to the Syrian settlement “was promoted by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, it was supported by Sergey Lavrov.”

“It worked,” Voronkov said.

“The prototype of such work on a complex issue was developed, to a large extent, during the work of the P5+1 group and Iran,” the diplomat said. He recalled that at the initial stage Iran, just like Syria, did not take part in the negotiation process. “The restoration of confidence was proceeding gradually, step by step. I believe that, if there is a positive movement forward within the framework of 19 countries, Syria will join the process at some point,” he noted.

Voronkov added that the solution of the issue of Iran’s nuclear program shows that “in the current environment, diplomacy is an absolutely effective and reliable mechanism, if there is political will from all sides.”