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Ivanov warns Washington over Iran |
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Sunday, 18 March 2007 |
The U.S. position complicates the resolution of the Iranian nuclear problem,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.
"A significant part of the problem, just as with the Korean Peninsula problem,
is related to the U.S. unwillingness to normalize its relations with Tehran on
the basis of commonly accepted principles," Lavrov was quoted by the Interfax
news agency as saying at a Foreign and Defense Policy Council conference.
The flexibility the United States displayed in the standoff with Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) could be well used in its approach to Iran.
"Such approach will help resume talks on Iran's nuclear dossier," Lavrov said.
"It is necessary to work out a new strategy, on a collective base, in order to
settle the situation in Iraq and the Middle East," Lavrov said.
"If we succeed in making corrections in Iraq's policy on a collective base, this
will help meet the interests of Washington and Tehran that stake on the same
government in the country," he said.
Russia's security chief on the other hand, issued a veiled warning to Washington
on Sunday not to use the Iranian nuclear issue to interfere in Tehran's internal
affairs.
Igor Ivanov, the head of Russia's Security Council, made it clear that Moscow
opposes "this question being used as an instrument of pressure, being used to
interfere in Iran's internal affairs."
At the same time Ivanov, who is Russia's chief negotiator with Iran over its
nuclear program, called on Tehran to clarify remaining questions about its
uranium enrichment activities.
"If this issue is closed, then Iran will have the right to develop peaceful
atomic programs," Ivanov told the Council for International and Defense Policy,
a club of Russian officials and foreign policy specialists.
He also said that Russia's suspension last week of plans to launch a nuclear
power plant it is building near the Iranian town of Bushehr was not linked to
Iran's standoff with the West.
"This is an independent question, and all the work that is done and continues
there is under the strict control of the IAEA," he said.
Washington has consistently pressed Moscow not to launch the plant.
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