MOSCOW, November 24 (Itar-Tass) — Additional sanctions on Tehran wreck international efforts aimed at improving a constructive dialogue with Iran and leads to the escalation of tension, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.
“Additional sanctions proposed by Britain and Canada run counter common understanding, which was reached within the Sextet and unanimously approved by the IAEA Board of Governors. We should also recall that the Sextet commitment to ensuring the comprehensive settlement over Iran’s nuclear programme was confirmed by the September 21 statement of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton on behalf of Britain, Germany, China, Russia, the United States and France,” Lukashevich said.
“There is no escaping the impression that stepping up pressure on Iran is becoming a self-goal for certain partners. Russia always believes that there is no alternative to the diplomatic and political solution of Iran’s nuclear problem in compliance with the U.N. Security Council resolutions. Our principled position remains unchanged,” the diplomat said.
The six world powers, including Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, still disagree on the need for additional sanctions against Iran. In particular, China has announced that it is not the right time to take any new measures against Tehran, as members of the U.N. Security Council have already adopted five resolutions against that country. Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to stop its nuclear programme.
Western countries insist that Iran develops its nuclear programme for military purposes, while Tehran claims it pursues purely civilian purposes.
In June 2008, the Sextet stated a set of proposals that “open up big opportunities for Iran’s broad cooperation with the international community in a number of areas, including nuclear energy”.
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said that Iran was not providing the necessary cooperation that would convince the agency in the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran and in that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.
“The full implementation by Iran of its binding obligations is needed to establish international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran·s nuclear programme. While the Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at nuclear facilities and locations outside facilities declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement,” Amano said.
Amano stressed, “Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable the Agency to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”
He urged Iran “to take steps towards the full implementation of its Safeguards Agreement and its other obligations.”
In July 2010 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Iran was getting closer to achieving the capability to make nuclear weapons. Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, is rejecting U.N. demands to suspend enrichment of uranium, which can be used both for generating electricity and for making a nuclear warhead. Negotiations broke down in January after talks in Istanbul between Iran and the so-called Sextet.