Iran Focus: London, Jan. 17 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that sanctions were not the best means of dealing with Irans nuclear threat. Iran Focus
London, Jan. 17 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that sanctions were not the best means of dealing with Irans nuclear threat.
Sanctions are by no means the best and only way to settle international problems, Lavrov told reporters at a press conference, the ITAR-TASS new agency reported.
Russia is determined to be most accurate in dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue and to avoid sharp movements liable to aggravate the situation, the Russian Foreign Minister said.
Russia will be ready to attend the urgent February 2-3 meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors to discuss possible measures linked with the resumption of research work at several Iranian nuclear installations, which IAEA had earlier sealed as it was agreed in London, he said, referring to a meeting on Monday in the British capital by representatives from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council as well as Germany.
He said that during Mondays meeting the six states expressed concern in connection with Irans decision to resume scientific research at its nuclear installations and stressed the extreme importance of Irans reversion to the negotiations process.
All the sides have expressed during the London meeting their concern about Irans work to enrich uranium in defiance of all the calls of the world community not to do it.
There was a time when Teheran had agreed with IAEA to clamp down a moratorium on all types of works to enrich uranium, he said.
On Monday, some 200 Iranian exiles gathered outside the British Foreign Ministry, where the six states met, calling for the Iranian regimes nuclear file to be sent to the UN Security Council for it to face a comprehensive oil embargo.
The Iranians, all supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, waved tri-coloured Iranian flags and lifted banners reading Expel mullahs from U.N. and Democratic change by Iranian Resistance.
The demonstrators handed in a petition making their case to the Foreign Office.
Hossein Abedini, a member of the NCRIs Foreign Affairs Committee, said, Iranian people do not want a foreign military invasion. At the same time, they believe that the West should end its abysmal policy of appeasement towards the mullahs regime.
We are here as the voice of the Iranian people to tell the world that there is a third option, as proposed by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance. That is for the international community to support the Iranian people and their Resistance in bringing about a democratic change in Iran, he said.