THE UNITED NATIONS, June 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Groundless statements of experts from the UN Security Council committee over Iran’s violation of sanctions may negatively affect the progress of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin warned on Wednesday.
Speaking at a meeting devoted to the UN Security Council committee on sanctions against Iran, the diplomat criticized its members for excessive activity “at current, extremely sensitive stage of negotiating process on Iranian nuclear program.”
“Experts should be quite careful in conclusions and assessments. Any information that not confirmed by concrete facts over possible violations of the sanction regime may negatively affect the progress of talks between P5+1 negotiators and Iran and its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and should not be included in the report,” Churkin said.
The Russian ambassador also blasted experts for speculations about “the future of sanction regime” after a comprehensive agreement on Iranian nuclear program is attained. In his words, this issue “is beyond a mandate” of experts. “The group (of experts) should not interfere in this quite sensitive process, moreover, it is impermissible to anticipate its outcome,” the diplomat said. He noted that a next stage of Iran-P5+1 talks would be held in Austria’s capital, Vienna, on July 2-15.
In their latest report experts from the committee came to conclusion that Iran kept searching for ways to avoid UN Security Council sanctions imposed in retaliation to Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment. Meanwhile, they accused Iranian authorities of continued development of ballistic missiles breaching UN Security Council resolutions. The report also noted there is information about Iran’s illegal weapon supplies in violation of effective embargo in Syria, the Gaza Strip, Sudan and Bahrain.
Australian Ambassador to the UN Gary Quinlan, who heads the committee on Iranian sanctions, dwelt in the report to the UN Security Council on information about weapon supplies to the Gaza Strip. In March, Israel stated that the country had intercepted vessel Klos-C shipping missiles, mortars and ammunition in the Red Sea. According to Israeli authorities, the cargo was on the way to the Palestinian enclave from Iran. Later, Tehran dismissed these assertions groundless.