Russia has been at loggerheads with the US regarding Washington's threat of imposing further unilateral sanctions on Iran over its nuclear dossier.
The two sides stressed the need to work harder together in collaboration with others in the field of nuclear non-proliferation (Good luck with getting Israel on board, they love their nukes and dream of using them to wipe out all Arabs)
But Russia did not back up one-sided US harsher punitive actions against Iran.
"There are collective decisions adopted in the United Nations Security Council, and those oblige all countries in the world to behave in a particular way and to fulfill certain requirements. But there are also unilateral sanctions that the United States or the European Union has imposed in addition to the UNSC with regard to Iran…We keep telling our partners that unilateral sanctions are not in line with our collective actions," Lavrov told reporters when asked about Clinton's recent remarks on Iran.
Clinton had told US lawmakers in late April that the US was 'willing' to engage diplomatically with Iran but at the same time threatened Tehran with 'very tough, crippling sanctions' if the US failed to obtain its desired results.
CLINTON: "We are in the process of laying the groundwork for making the case for tougher sanctions. We have not laid the groundwork. And I think that the case that we're making to our partners in the P-5+1 is to reach out to Iran…But we are very watchful as to how Iran responds," Clinton told reporters. (that is a threat, it is not reaching out to Iran, and threats make people go hardline. When will the US learn this)
Lavrov however said that Russia saw no "sense" in any harsh sanctions against Iran but instead sought to return Iran to the negotiating table. "But as far as pressure is concerned, if we understand by pressure, the efforts aimed at convincing Iran to return to the negotiations table - we are applying such efforts in an active and robust manner."
Russia along with other four permanent members of the UN Security Council- -US, UK, France and China- - plus Germany are discussing Iran's long disputed nuclear issue.
While the UNSC, under US pressure, has adopted three rounds of sanctions against Iran over its uranium enrichment work, Moscow disagrees to pile up pressure on Tehran and rejects any 'violent solution' to the issue. Russia says diplomacy could best solve the matter.
Despite promising a new beginning with Iran, the new US administration has apparently followed in Bush's footsteps. The Obama administration earlier extended Clinton-era sanctions in 1995. It also imposed sanctions on six Iranian firms over alleged links to Tehran's missile and nuclear work last month.
Amid efforts to solve Tehran's nuclear issue,Iran says it is open to the negotiations without any precondition which would undermine its right to use peaceful nuclear technology as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). (A treaty that Israel will not sign up to BTW!!) source
4 years ago
