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"Anti-regime protests must not destabilize Iran" Russia says

MOSCOW, June 16 (AFP) - Russia said Monday it hoped that six days of student-led anti-regime protests in Iran would not destabilize the political situation in the Islamic republic.
"We hope that the internal political situation is not destabilized in Iran," Interfax quoted foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko as saying.

Yakovenko said that Russia was closely monitoring the violence, while noting that the demonstrations were "Iran's internal affair."

"We are saddened that the political disputes are leading to violence and bloodshed," Yakovenko added.

Iran lashed out Monbday at the United States -- which has welcomed the demonstrations -- and sent a "vigorous protest" over Washington's "interference" in its internal affairs.

Separately, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov called on the IAEA governors to take a "measured and non-politicised" decision after receiving the report on Iran by its director general Mohamed ElBaradei.

"We believe the reaction of the council of governors to this report must be measured and non-politicised, and take all aspects into account," he said, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

"The reaction should correspond to the parts of the report where it is a matter of activities discovered in Iran that were not known by the IAEA previously," he said.

ElBaradei said earlier in his report to the 35 IAEA governors, the body's regulatory body, that Tehran had "omitted to mention certain of its nuclear activities."

Iran, which is building its first nuclear power plant with Russia's help, is suspected by some countries, including the United States, of secretly working on a nuclear weapons program. It insists the plant is purely for civilian purposes.

Washington has been pressing the IAEA to condemn the program.

Source: Iranmania