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Middle East and North Africa

Russian foreign minister: Sextet, Iran have good chances to agree common approaches

"I shared details with the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers during our today’s meeting," Lavrov added

Photo ITAR-TASS / Valery Matytsin

Photo ITAR-TASS / Valery Matytsin

NEW DELHI, November 10 (Itar-Tass) - The Sextet of international mediators and Iran have good chances to word approaches that could be used as a basis for a general document, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday after talks with his counterparts from India and China, Salman Khurshid and Wang Yi, respectively.

“The meeting [in Geneva] demonstrated that over that past year polemics and exchange of initial positions without any attempt to bring them closer are paling into insignificance in talks on this subject, while coming into the fore is the understanding that it is necessary to work on issues that arouse concern from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the international community, which need to be resolved,” the Russian minister said. “Iran’s new leadership, and we hail it, has demonstrated its commitment to make steps in this direction and the talks with Iranian representatives were utterly concrete concerning practical aspects of the Iranian nuclear programme.”

“It is of principal importance for us, since Russia, as other members of the Tree Plus Three group and the world community in general, is interested in removing any risks for the regime of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,” Lavrov went on to say. “It might be done only by means of talks, so it is pleasing that Russia’s position it has been promoting for years in now heard by all participants in the Tree Plus Three group.”

“This position is the avoidance of threats and the permanent use of the “leverage” of sanctions bypassing the United Nations Security Council and the discussion of the substance of the matter. This is how it was at the talks,” he noted. “Once again I would like to note the very important role played by the delegation from the United State led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. They were very active in their efforts to reach agreements that would help find common approaches between all of us and Syria.

“We have managed to reach considerable progress. I shared details with the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers during our today’s meeting,” he added.

On November 20, the Sextet political directors will meet to word the approaches that might constitute a joint document. “The chances are very high,” he added.

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