Russia maintains stance against UN Iran sanctions

By Gareth Smyth 
April 21, 2006
The Financial Times
Original Source: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/9444c036-d128-11da-a38b-0000779e2340.html

Russia on Friday maintained its opposition to United Nations sanctions against Iran over the country’s nuclear programme unless proof emerged of a diversion into weapons.
“One can speak of sanctions only after the appearance of concrete facts proving Iran is not engaged exclusively in peaceful nuclear activities,” Mikhail Kamynin, the foreign ministry spokesman, said.
The RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Nikolai Spassky, deputy head of the Kremlin Security Council, saying: “There is no such issue (of sanctions) for us - we are not discussing it.”
A 30-day deadline from the UN security council for Iran to suspend all nuclear activities expires on April 28, but the council’s permanent members failed this week in Moscow to reach agreement on what action to take. Both Russia and China – who are among the council’s veto-wielding permanent members– oppose calls from the US, Britain and France for punitive action.
On Thursday Moscow also rejected a US call to end co-operation in constructing Iran’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr in southern Iran, and Russian media reports have said the defence ministry will go ahead with selling Tor-M1 air-defence missile systems to Tehran.
Russia does continue to argue, however, that Iran should improve its co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose head, Mohamed ElBaradei, is due to present in the coming days his latest report focused on unanswered questions over Iran’s nuclear activities.
Iran’s representative to the IAEA, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, on Friday repeated that Iran considers itself to be in full co-operation with the agency, despite last month’s UN security council resolution condemning its lack of open-ness.
“We are ready to eliminate all the ambiguities with regard to our nuclear file,” Mr Soltanieh said.
With little apparent chance of a harder security council line, Iran seems set to resist the UN’s call to suspend uranium enrichment, which it has resumed after restarting a research programme in January.
At Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani stressed Iran had no intention of backing down.
“For [the sake of our] independence, economy, dignity and credibility, the Iranian nation will in no way retreat, not even one step,” he told worshippers.
President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad said on Friday the current high level of crude oil prices was “very good”, reflecting some satisfaction in Iran’s ruling circles at the drift of events.
Iran, Opec’s second biggest exporter, saw its oil income rise to over $45bn in the Iranian year to March 2006.