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Russia Rejects Draft Resolution on Iran as Ineffective

Created: 27.10.2006 14:27 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:09 MSK

MosNews

Russia has rejected a draft UN resolution put forward by European powers targeting Iran’s nuclear program, saying the proposed measures did not advance objectives agreed on earlier by major world powers, AFP reported.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the resolution put forward Wednesday by Britain, France and Germany would not be effective in containing Iran’s program and contradicted the consensus reached by the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany.

“I think that in this respect the draft resolution that has been presented clearly does not further the objectives that the six powers agreed on earlier,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency Thursday.

Those goals, Lavrov said, are preventing proliferation of “sensitive technology” without the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, while also keeping open “all necessary channels of communication with Iran.”

The foreign ministry’s deputy head, Sergei Kislyak, said separately that Russia was “carefully studying” the draft resolution. However, a “long negotiating process is required” to find a mutually acceptable decision, he was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Russia has long resisted the West’s push for tough sanctions, partly due to a lucrative contract to construct Iran’s first civilian nuclear power station at Bushehr.

The draft resolution, which proposes “necessary measures” to prevent nuclear and missile technology from reaching Iran, does not directly mention the construction work at Bushehr.

The United States has called on Russia to halt nuclear cooperation with Iran, but France’s UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said the Europeans favored exempting the lucrative Bushehr project.

Kislyak told Interfax: “There are much bigger problems there than the construction of the Bushehr station.”

In comments released Saturday, Lavrov repeated Russia’s insistence that Iran respect international demands on its nuclear programme, but also said: “We cannot support and will actively oppose any attempt to use the Security Council to punish Iran or to use Iran’s nuclear program in order to promote the idea of regime change.”

De la Sabliere, who played a key role in drafting the proposed sanctions, said they invoked Article 41 of Chapter Seven of the UN Charter which calls for sanctions not involving the use of force.

The draft warns that the Security Council would “consider further measures” if Iran still refused to comply with a demand that it freeze uranium enrichment, a process used to produce fuel for nuclear reactors but which, if extended, can also provide the raw material for bombs.

De La Sabliere told reporters that the text also contained a freeze on assets related to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs as well as travel bans on nuclear and weapons scientists.

He said the draft would be discussed Thursday among envoys of the council’s five veto-wielding members, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany.

He added that the punitive measures were needed to respond to Tehran’s defiance after the failure of negotiations between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

Russia has long been closely involved in Iran and in addition to building the Bushehr power station is a major supplier of hi-tech conventional weapons to Tehran.

But repeated delays in completing the Bushehr power station have prompted speculation that Moscow is quietly heeding Washington’s warnings.

On Wednesday Sergei Shmatko, the head of the Russian company that is heading the project, Atomstroiexport, announced further delays in construction, insisting that the reasons were technical in nature.

Russia Rejects Draft Resolution on Iran as Ineffective (http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/10/27/russiarejects.shtml)