MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. The agreement on the Iranian nuclear program may be made legally binding by a resolution of the UN Security Council, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday.
"There are various options [to guarantee the agreement observance], including by way of the adoption of a corresponding resolution of the UN Security Council," the official said.
"There are alternative forms of making the future agreement legally binding," he said, answering a question whether the future agreement on the Iranian nuclear program will be subject to mandatory ratification by the parliaments of its signatories. "The international legal value of a UN Security Council resolution is undisputable. If we imagine a situation where the future agreement is approved by a UN Security Council resolution, we will get the sought legally binding nature of this agreement."
"It’s one of the options," Ryabkov said. "Since this is multi-party talks, not everything depends on Russia. There is no final understanding on this issue yet."
"However, in our opinion, it’s the most realistic and reasonable way. We all know how difficult it is to ensure ratification of international legal instruments related to the issues of disarmament, non-proliferation, international security by parliaments of some countries. Therefore, for the sake of avoiding hold-backs, if there are no serious collisions, probably this would be the best way," Ryabkov said.
On April 2, Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers (the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China, facilitated by the European Union) reached a breakthrough in negotiations aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear programme. The framework for an agreement emerged after eight days of dialogue in Switzerland, with months of previous talks having failed. If Iran adheres to the outlined restrictions and transparency measures on its nuclear aspirations, the Western powers will lift sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.