Sanctions against Iran still premature: Russia

Russia has said any further sanctions against Iran were unnecessary until Tehran provides an official reply to the UN nuclear watchdog's fuel processing proposal. "We are counting on a positive reply from Tehran soon. In this connection, the issue of sanctions is not on the agenda," the official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Andrei Nesterenko said yesterday. Nesterenko said the proposed scheme could help restore trust, confirm Tehran's readiness for cooperation, and "start substantive dialogue to address the array of issues related to Irans nuclear programme." Iran has said it is willing to send its low-enriched uranium abroad, but would require explicit guarantees from the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it will receive high-enriched uranium for its research reactor.

Russia on Tuesday also dismissed as groundless accusation by a US non-proliferation expert that Moscow was helping Iran build nuclear weapons.

"The emergence of nuclear weapons in Iran would be just as unacceptable to us as to the United States. We have said this several times," Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to the claim by Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Washington-based Non-Proliferation Policy Education Centre.

Sokolski accused Russia in an article published in the Washington Times last week of involvement in an Iranian nuclear weapons programme.

"So claims that Russia is helping Iran to build nuclear weapons are entirely unfounded," the Ministry said.

Sokolski in his article, cited "leaked International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) documents" as saying Iran is working on a nuclear warhead "small and light enough to enable Iran's latest rocket systems to target NATO's southeastern members." He said Russians "have been helping Iran complete a heavy water reactor at Arak that is optimized to make weapons usable plutonium." He also cited a US intelligence report as saying Russia was helping Iran build a rocket capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Meanwhile, Iran has expressed the hope that Russia will fulfill its contract for the supply of S-300 air defence missile systems, RIA Novosti news agency reported quoting an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday.

Russia signed a contract with Iran on the supply of S-300 air defence systems to Tehran in December 2005. However, there have been no official reports on the start of the contract's implementation.

-- (UNI) -- 25DF1.xml

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