AFP: Russia was “satisfied” with the final text of the resolution which the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Saturday, slapping sanctions targetting Iran’s sensitive nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said. MOSCOW, Dec 23, 2006 (AFP) – Russia was “satisfied” with the final text of the resolution which the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Saturday, slapping sanctions targetting Iran’s sensitive nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said.
“We are satisfied that all of the Russian side’s concerns and positions on key issues were considered and incorporated into this resolution’s text,” Vitaly Churkin said as quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
“We have worked well, but our common victory will come only when together we will be able to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem by political and diplomatic means,” Churkin told Russian reporters.
Nevertheless, Moscow still considered sanctions to be “the most extreme instrument in the international diplomacy’s arsenal,” the diplomat added.
“Russia has taken every chance in its contacts both with the Iranian side and its partners among the six powers and the Security Council so that the Iranian nuclear problem could be solved without resorting to sanctions. Unfortunately, we could not achieve that,” Churkin said.
The resolution’s European text was amended several times, notably to overcome Russian objections, as Moscow and Beijing, which have close economic and energy ties with Tehran, deemed it too tough, while Washington sought a stronger text.
Western countries and Israel pushed hard for the sanctions, fearing that Iran could use its uranium enrichment activities to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear program is strictly peaceful and aimed at providing electricity for a growing population.
Tehran rejected a package of economic and diplomatic incentives offered last June by six major powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — in exchange for a freeze of its uranium enrichment program.
