Former head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency was speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of Islamic Awakening Conference held in the Islamic Republic of Iran's Broadcasting's International Conference Center.
"God willing Bushehr power plant is passing the crisis, meaning that nuclear action and reaction is underway and is to reach the steam production stage. We hope that in the following month, the steam production capacity of the plant will reach to a point which it could be fed into turbine to rotate that, generate electricity and tentatively be connected to the network," he said.
"Our friends at the Atomic Energy Agency are to hold a big celebration to be attended by foreign guests after necessary measures are taken and the trial stage is passed," Salehi added.
Asked whether the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will attend the opening ceremony or not, he said: "It will be announced by the [Iranian] officials in due time."
The establishment of Bushehr Nuclear Plant project dates back to the years before the Islamic Revolution when the former regime of Iran signed an agreement with the German company Siemens to build the reactor. However, after the revolution in 1979 the German company pulled out of the project and in 1992 Iran signed an agreement with Russia to finish the construction of the Power Station.
In reply to a question about earlier reports on a scheduled travel to Saudi Arabia, Iran's Foreign Minister said: "I had no plans to visit Saudi Arabia."
Saudi Arabian media and sources in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) formerly announced the kingdom had refused to receive Salehi as part of his Gulf tour on the pretext of what they said is Islamic republics confrontation with and media campaign against their country.
On the Foreign Ministry's view about retaliatory measure to be adopted by Iran's Majlis (Parliament) on placing economic sanctions on some US officials Salehi said: "A proposal relevant to the issue has been made which is being observed by the Majlis. It would be a logical response to the world arrogance."
"Our friends in Majlis have taken an appropriate step in identifying and introducing those who have trampled human rights [in the countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq], supported international terrorism and engaged in drug smuggling," he added.
The move is a reaction to the White house measures which ratcheted up sanctions against Iranian top leaders for alleged human rights abuses and The Islamic Republic's nuclear program. The Islamic republic's sanction list includes 26 US officials whose names are not made public by now.
When asked whether foreign policy chief of the European Union (EU) Catherine Ashton has replied to the letter of Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council or not, the Foreign Minister said: "It's better to ask Supreme National Security Council directly."
In his letter, Jalili has noted that Iran welcomes talks with major world powers (P5+1) based on common grounds and in a pressure-free atmosphere, but Ashton refrained from holding multifaceted negotiations with Tehran, Iranian state-run satellite channel Press TV reported.
In May 12 EU foreign policy chief pointed to a recent letter by Jalili and said, "On its own, Dr. Jalili's letter does not contain anything new and does not seem to justify a further meeting."
Describing his travel to Europe, Salehi went on to say: "Our visits are arranged in a way to take the best advantage. It's not simply travel for the sake of travel. In terms of our visits I would say that we do not insist on paying such visits, but the other party does. I mention this to remove the misconception that we ourselves are eager to embark on such travels. Some invitations are made from us, we consider them after realizing that we are able to give a positive response and accept them. God willing, the name of those countries which we are going to visit and the schedule for these travels will be announced at a convenient time."
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