Posted By: Tom Hustler
By David Brunnstrom
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia is ready to back a U.N.
resolution to curb Iran's nuclear program but sanctions drawn
up by European leaders greatly exceed what Moscow agreed with
Western powers, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.if (window.yzq_a == null) document.write("");if (window.yzq_a)
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Negotiations on the draft resolution, authored by Britain,
France and Germany with general U.S. support, promise to be
tough, possibly lasting weeks, because veto-wielding Russia and
China oppose punitive action against Tehran.
Lavrov was speaking in Brussels as envoys of the six world
powers prepared to meet at the United Nations later in the day
to tackle differences over steps toward sanctions.
He said the six had agreed that measures against Iran
should be "reasonable ... be proportional given the actual
situation as regards the nuclear program in Iran and should
also be in stages."
"We were prepared and are still prepared to draw up
measures of that sort," he told reporters after talks with
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, representing theEuropean Union presidency, and EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana.
"We do not intend to drop back our efforts as regards the
problem of Iran and nuclear power," Lavrov said, but he added:
"What the EU troika drew up went way beyond what was agreed."
Earlier, Lavrov's deputy, Sergei Kislyak, said Moscow,
which is keen to protect major trade stakes in Iran, would not
back the resolution without significant changes.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
said she did not think Russia would block the U.N. resolution
but conceded it might not be as tough as the United States
would have liked.
"I think we will have a resolution that puts sanctions on
Iran. It won't be as strong a resolution as if we had written
it ourselves," Rice said in an interview with the Glenn Beck
radio show. "But I think what you're seeing is some negotiation
right now about what that resolution is going to say," she
added.
On Wednesday, Lavrov said Russia rejected steps that would
corner Iran, alluding to a travel ban in the draft on Iran's
nuclear ambitions, which the West believes are a cover for
bombmaking but Tehran says involve generating electricity only.
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER BAN
The draft orders all countries to prevent the sale and
supply of equipment, technology and financing contributing to
Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. It would freeze
assets of people and entities involved in these programs and
prevent them from traveling except for special events.
"I would think we will get a resolution imposing some minor
sanctions," said a Western diplomat at the United Nations, who
asked not to be identified. "But that would require substantive
concessions from both the Americans, who want tougher
sanctions, and the Russians, who (really) want no sanctions at
all."
Friday's meeting of the six powers will be the first in
more than a week. All but Germany, a key negotiator, are
permanent Security Council members with veto rights.
Russia's demands are expected to include softening the
sanctions and redefining an exemption for a nuclear reactor
Moscow is building for Iran, Security Council diplomats said.
The European-authored draft exempts from sanctions the $800
million Bushehr reactor in southwestern Iran, expected to go
into operation late next year.
But the draft says Russia must check with a Security
Council committee if it delivers material that can be used for
weapons, such as parts used for the uranium enrichment cycle.
Russia has objected to including Bushehr in the resolution
in the first place, saying it was a power plant that is legal
under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Lavrov has said the resolution should focus only on areas
the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear
watchdog, has defined as serious, such as uranium enrichment,
chemical processing and heavy-water reactors.
Iran's nuclear research program has already purified
nominal amounts of uranium to the low level needed to fuel
power plants. Refined to a high level, uranium can set off the
chain reaction at the heart of atomic bombs.
(Additional reporting by Evelyn Leopold at the United
Nations, Ali Ronaghi in Tehran, Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow, Mark
Heinrich in Vienna and Sophie Walker in London)
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