Iran Focus: London, Sep. 24 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday Moscow saw no grounds for imposing sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear program, the news agency Itar-Tass reported. Iran Focus
London, Sep. 24 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday Moscow saw no grounds for imposing sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear program, the news agency Itar-Tass reported.
“Russia has never set factitious terms to reach conflict settlement. Our goal is to ensure the inviolability of the non-proliferation regime”, Lavrov said.
“Russia is not sitting idle and waiting for how the EU High Representative Javier Solanas talks on Iran will end. It is actively working with the Iranian counterparts to ensure a maximally favourable result of such contacts”, he added.
“All partakers in the talks call for pooling efforts to settle the problem by political and diplomatic means. There are enough possibilities for finding such solution to the problem”, he said, adding that he believed that the efforts of Solana and the international community would help resume talks with Tehran.
Russia is building parts of a major Iranian nuclear plant at Bushehr under a $1 billion contract.
The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1696 on July 31 demanding that Tehran suspend all its uranium enrichment activities by August 31 or face the threat of sanctions. Tehran missed that deadline.
The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog Mohammad ElBaradei reported on August 31 that Tehran had not suspended its uranium enrichment activities and had blocked IAEA inspectors from inspecting its nuclear facilities.
There have been reports that Tehran would be willing to suspend uranium enrichment for two months in order to avoid a Security Council resolution imposing mild sanctions against it for disregarding the demands of the council and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Western diplomats have said that Iran has demanded a string of serious concessions from the West in order to go through with the temporary halt. These include a complete and permanent suspension of all Security Council action against it for breaches of its nuclear obligations and the recognition of its right to enrich uranium on its own soil.
