All news

Russia worried by delay in implementation of Geneva accords on Iran

© AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi
Speaking about the meaning of the Geneva agreements on Iran, Lavrov noted that they contained concrete steps Tehran should take in the next six months

MOSCOW, December 14. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia is worried by a possible delay in the implementation of the Geneva agreements on Iran, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“Unfortunately, the commencement of the first stage is delayed because the European Union has told us that these agreements have to be approved by all of the EU member states. The nearest possible date for that is December 16. On that day, I will have a meeting with all of the 28 EU ministers and Catherine Ashton [High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy] within the framework of the so-called Permanent Partnership Council,” Lavrov told Russia 24 television on Saturday, December 14.

“However, there are signs indicating that the EU will not be able to approve this package this time, and then everything will be delayed until January, that is, the start of the six-month implementation period for stage one will be put off for one more month. This worries us, and we will try to find out from our EU colleagues what ‘insurmountable obstacles’ have caused them to delay for many weeks the approval of the agreement that everyone hailed as a historic breakthrough and the implementation of which is wanted by everyone,” the minister said.

Speaking about the meaning of the Geneva agreements on Iran, Lavrov noted that they contained concrete steps Tehran should take in the next six months. “First of all, it has to suspend the operation of practically all facilities; it may not bring enrichment above 5 percent and must stop enrichment to a 20-percent concentration; and it should halt all work at the site where a heavy-water reactor is being built in Arak. There are also some other steps, including transparency, which will give IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspectors broader monitoring and verification powers,” Lavrov said.

In return, the world powers agreed to take measures aimed at easing the sanctions against Iran. “As the first step, they [the measures] should be taken by the countries that imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran bypassing the U.N. Security Council, primarily the United States and the European Union. All this should be done within six months. Some of Iran’s foreign assets, frozen under unilateral sanctions, will be unblocked,” the minister said.

“All this is stated in great detail and there is nothing to argue about,” he noted, adding, “There is no need to interpret these agreements broadly or narrowly.”

He believes that further work “should be conducted only collectively, as was agreed, and should focus on coordinating the final parameters of the Iranian peaceful nuclear program, including uranium enrichment parameters for fuel production, while resolving all of the IAEA questions and placing it [the program] under the Agency’s full and strict control,” Lavrov said.

“It is important that everything is done as agreed, without trying to interpret the agreement broadly or narrowly, and that consultations start in parallel on the terms of the final package that will dot all the ‘i’s and close the issue for good,” Lavrov said earlier this week.

He noted that ambitious deadlines had been set for settling the issue of the Iranian nuclear program, which Russia and Iran were determined to meet. He believes that this work should result in “the recognition of Iran’s right to peaceful use of nuclear energy, including the right to peaceful enrichment of uranium, and in the resolution of all questions the IAEA has.”

“It is the general understanding that the Geneva document should be implemented conscientiously by all parties and we will press for that,” the minister said, adding that the agreements reached in Geneva should be fulfilled not only by Iran but also by the P5+1 countries that “introduced unilateral sanctions [against Iran] in circumvention of the U.N. Security Council.”

Lavrov noted the progress in relations between the IAEA and Iran. “IAEA inspectors are already carrying on their work in Iran, taking into account the agreements reached in Geneva. This process will be helped by a committee being created from representatives of the P5+1, Iran and the IAEA. It will certainly be helped by the active consultations now underway between Iran and the IAEA on the issues the Agency would like to clarify,” he said.

The minister reiterated that Russia was interested in cooperation with Iran in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy. “We can see similar interest on the part of Iran. We are aware of Iran’s plans to build additional power units similar to that in Bushehr,” Lavrov said, referring to light-water reactors that are “not prohibited by any of the U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

Iran and the IAEA plan to agree the second package of practical measures for Tehran’s nuclear program at their next meeting on January 21, 2014. The second package will become operational from February 11, 2014 when the first one expires.

IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Safeguards Tero Varjoranta said that on January 21, 2014 Iranian and IAEA experts would start discussing those aspects of Tehran’s nuclear program that specialists refer to as a possible military component of research activities.

He said IAEA inspectors would visit the Gachin uranium mine in Iran before February 11, 2014. The bilateral agreement signed on November 11 requires such an inspection to be conducted within a three months’ time.

Varjoranta also said that Iran had so far lived up to the IAEA’s expectations regarding nuclear program verification cooperation in Iran.

He said work was going according to plan.

Iran’s representative to international organisations in Vienna Reza Najafi described his consultations with the IAEA as “productive.” “We discussed six practical measures that were agreed in Tehran on November 11, including the inspection of the Arak heavy water plant that was conducted on December 8-9,” he said.

Varjoranta said the IAEA inspectors had fulfilled all of their technical tasks during the inspection, which was the first practical step to resolve IAEA concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.

In early November, the two sides determined six issues to address in the next three months.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the November deal was a “major success” and pledged that Tehran would expand its cooperation with the IAEA.

He said that the main result of the talks between the P5+1 and Iran should be full lifting of sanctions on Iran.

“We think that the sanctions are counterproductive and are not consistent with international law. Eventually, all international sanctions, including those imposed by the U.N. decision, should be lifted,” Zarif said.

He said he was hopeful for further progress in this direction in a short period of time.

Moscow said it would also continue to convince its partners that further pressure or sanctions against Iran would only lead to a deadlock, and stressed that “the threat of force should be ruled out completely”.

“We appreciate the statements made by the new Iranian leadership regarding its intention to make the Iranian nuclear program more transparent and look for ways to resolve disagreements. However this should not be done unilaterally but should be accompanied by steps to lift the sanctions, primarily unilateral sanctions, which were imposed by Western and some other countries in violation of their obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov noted that Russia recognised Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, including the right to enrich uranium to 20 percent under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“We are convinced that if our position were supported by all other parties to the talks with Tehran, we could hope for greater and better progress,” the minister said.

Until the Geneva deal, Iranian talks had long been in limbo with the United States and its Western allies suspecting Tehran of harbouring secret plans to create nuclear weapons and imposed economic sanctions against the country, and the Iranian government insisting that it only wanted to build nuclear power plants.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said during his visit to Cairo on November 3 that “the United States is deeply engaged with the P5+1, in the guarantees that Iran will not get a nuclear weapon.”

“That is a promise by the President of the United States,” he stressed.

However, Zarif repeatedly pointed out that “the Iranian nuclear program is purely peaceful and we will convince everybody of that.”

 

Russian President Putin expressed hope that the international community would soon reach new agreements and results in the talks on the Iranian nuclear program.

“We hope very much that the international community and the parties to this process will soon be able to reach new agreements on further work and new results,” Putin said.

He believes that necessary conditions have been created for that.

The president welcomed the agreements on the Iranian nuclear program reached by Tehran and the P5+1 (five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany) in Geneva in November.

“These agreements are largely based on the Russian proposals. We have always believed that this complex issue should be solved on the basis of principles and rules set out in international law, while giving Iran the right to develop nuclear energy programs for peaceful uses but at the same time ensuring the security of all countries in the region,” Putin said.

He stressed that this was only the first stage and it would be necessary move further.

The P5+1 is a group of countries which in 2006 joined the diplomatic efforts with Iran in regard to its nuclear program. The term refers to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, namely the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France, and Germany.