Posted on 04/21/2006 12:03:02 PM PDT by familyop
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Hardening its opposition to sanctions against Iran, Russia said on Friday the U.N. Security Council should only consider such measures if it had proof the Islamic Republic was trying to build nuclear weapons.
The council is awaiting a report on April 28 from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on whether Tehran is meeting its demands for a halt to uranium enrichment and answers to queries about its nuclear programme.
The United States, Britain and France want the Security Council to weigh sanctions if, as widely expected, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei concludes Iran has not met U.N. demands.
But Russia made clear it would not view such non-compliance on its own as warranting punitive steps against Tehran. It had previously said only that it doubted sanctions would work.
"We will only be able to talk about sanctions after we have concrete facts confirming that Iran is not exclusively involved in peaceful nuclear activities," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Iran insists on a legal right to enrich uranium for civilian nuclear energy and denies any secret bomb-building agenda. The IAEA has found no hard evidence Iran is after atomic weaponry.
But Iran has covered up parts of its nuclear programme in the past, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has heightened world concern by saying Israel should be "wiped off the map".
Senior cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani told Friday prayer worshippers ElBaradei and the IAEA had singled out Iran's quest for technology, while ignoring a nuclear-armed Israel.
He also accused the Security Council of failing to live up to its name. "You are establishing security for the wolves and predators rather than for the sheep," the cleric declared.
Iran had said an IAEA team led by Olli Heinonen, deputy director-general for nuclear safeguards, would arrive on Friday, but diplomats said they had been told Heinonen would not go.
A Vienna-based EU diplomat said Iran had not responded to requests for more cooperation. There was no point in Heinonen going to Tehran "if he's just going to get stonewalled".
NO SIGN OF COMPROMISE
Iran's deputy chief nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi met officials of Britain, France and Germany in Moscow on Wednesday, but his interlocutors said he gave no ground.
"The reverse is true -- Iran mentioned certain projects designed to pursue its enrichment programme," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.
The Iranian-EU talks followed a meeting of the Security Council's five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany. The big powers failed to agree on future sanctions against Iran.
Washington has vowed to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons and has refused to rule out military options if diplomacy fails.
Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told state television by telephone that his country would work with the IAEA to remove suspicions about its nuclear aims, saying:
"We will cooperate to clear the ambiguities as long as the questions fall within the framework of our legal pledges."
Iran now only allows IAEA inspectors access to its declared nuclear sites under its Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations. It had previously permitted snap checks, but halted them after the IAEA sent its nuclear dossier to the Security Council on February 4.
A key question for the IAEA is whether Iran has undeclared nuclear sites with military dimensions.
Last week Iran defied U.N. and IAEA demands by announcing it had for the first time enriched uranium to the level needed for power stations and would pursue industrial-scale production.
Russia rejected on Friday a U.S. call for it to scrap a planned missile sale to Iran, a day after rebuffing Washington's suggestion that it halt work on Iran's first atomic power plant.
President Ahmadinejad said on Friday Iran should rely on domestically produced petrol from September, a move that would make the country less vulnerable to sanctions.
Iran is the world's fourth biggest oil exporter, but a shortage of refining capacity forces it to import petrol for local consumption. Parliament this year cut the budget used to pay for imports, raising the prospect of rationing.
(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Tehran, Christian Lowe in Moscow, Mark Heinrich in Vienna and Jon Boyle in Paris)
They had the same attitude during the '79 embassy crisis. Must be the deep civilizational affinity, nothing less will explain.
How about Iran prove it's NOT for nukes? Screw Russia.
"We will cooperate to clear the ambiguities as long as the questions fall within the framework of our legal pledges."
"Ask us no questions, and we'll tell you no lies."
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't the head of the IAEA Iranian? Conflict of interest perhaps?
If Iran was building refineries instead of enriching uranium, all would be good.
Egyptian.
According to Google, he is an Egyptian. Not much good, either.
I believe that this is actually good news. Russia has gone from "No sanctions ever" to "sanctions if we have proof".
In the diplomacy game that is a step forward.
The Russians have been interested in Iran for more than 150 years, since they pushed into central Asia. After WWII, they had to be pushed to get out of the country.
Pox on all their houses.
Enough is enough.
Let's do what must be done.
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