MOSCOW, December 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin considers as counterproductive the US sanctions against Iran, however hopes for a gradual process of settling the Iranian nuclear problem.
“As for the sanctions — I am convinced, that decision is counterproductive,” he told a big news conference on Thursday commenting on new positions on the US black list of Iranian companies.
“As far as final decisions on settlement of the problem, that will not be productive,” the president said.
“I hope those statements and initiatives in that direction will not affect our progress towards settlement of the Iranian problem,” Putin said.
The president commented on the P5+1 latest negotiations in Geneva.
“I believe, the progress in the Iranian directions is connected not only with our position, but to a big extent with the pragmatic position of the American administration,” Putin said. “No doubt, we have been insisting on the position /adopted during the negotiations/, but without a corresponding intentions from our counterparts the final decisions could not be possible.”
“I do not think the recent statements from the US president mean the Americans distance from the line, we had offered jointly,” Putin said adding the White House had been “under pressure from various forces of the American establishment, including certain pressure from most part of the Congress.” The latter, the president said, has been referring quite often to the positions of Israel.
Over the entire process of the negotiations in the formats Iran-IAEA and Iran-P5+1 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany), Russia has followed the position, which recognizes Iran’s integral right for enriching uranium in compliance with the Agreement on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in response to putting the Iranian nuclear program under the overwhelming international control. As soon as the agreement is reached, all sanctions should be lifted fully.