Senior Russian MP: Moscow Opposes Sanctions against Iran
Deputy Speaker of the State Duma and Head of the Russia-Iran Parliamentary Friendship Group Nikolai Levichev in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mehdi Sanayee stressed Moscow's opposition to the imposition of any type of sanctions against Tehran.
"Russia opposes sanctions against Iran and considers negotiations as the best solution to remove the misunderstandings," Levichev said in Tehran on Tuesday.
He also expressed hope that the upcoming talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) slated for February 26 in Kazakhstan would yield good results.
Earlier this month, Deputy chief negotiators of Iran and the G5+1 agreed on the date and venue of the next round of talks between Iran and the six world powers.
Iran's deputy chief negotiator Ali Baqeri and EU foreign policy deputy chief Helga Schmitt in a phone talk on February 5 agreed that the next round of talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 be held in Kazakhstan's capital Almaty on February 26.
The last round of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany was held in Moscow in June.
Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.
Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.
Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.
Source:
farsnews.com
