Remarks of Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov Following Talks with French Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
September 18, 2007
Excerpts
[Unofficial translation from Russian.]
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Question: Mr. Minister Lavrov, do you believe that a solution to the Iran question can be found outside the UN?
Sergey Lavrov: Regarding Iran I want to emphasize that we will continue to be guided primarily by the necessity to prevent the nuclear nonproliferation regime from being violated. I am convinced that for a solution of this task to be sustainable and not resulting in consequences which we all want to avoid, this solution has to rest on international law. On the theme of Iran’s nuclear program, decisions of the IAEA Board of Governors and resolutions of the Security Council were adopted, and these moves of the international community have proved effective. Last month Iran agreed with the IAEA on the need to close all the questions the Agency still has about the Iranian nuclear program, and the IAEA and Iran elaborated the appropriate document. According to reports that we receive from the IAEA Director General, the document is being implemented satisfactorily, and we want this process to conclude unimpeded. And in general, as before, we will rely upon the professional assessments of experts from the IAEA. We well remember what the ignoring of the professional opinion of this Agency led to in the situation with Iraq four years ago. Thank you.
Question: Mr. Kouchner, world media yesterday disseminated your statement that you do not rule out a possible war or military operation against Iran. In this context I have a question to both ministers, do you really not rule out such a probability in the near future and how much did today’s talks show the degree of similarity of Russia and France’s positions on the question of Iran?
Sergey Lavrov: Since the question was also addressed to me, in addition to what I said responding to the French journalist, I want to add just this. We are convinced that not a single contemporary problem has a military solution, and this applies to the nuclear program of Iran.
I agree with the necessity to conduct negotiations in a persistent and consistent manner. In this case this means the necessity of resuming contacts between Javier Solana and Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security, as soon as possible. As to sanctions, I have already said that the UN Security Council has adopted two resolutions. We from the outset agreed that the Security Council would be involved in this process with a sole objective – to back the IAEA and ensure Iran’s compliance with the requirements of the IAEA. Therefore we remain committed to this original agreement on the understanding that the Security Council will not be forced to go beyond support of the IAEA. And as I’ve already said, the IAEA is now satisfied with the way Iran is implementing the accords on closing the outstanding issues on its nuclear file.
Speaking of sanctions, I shall also mention that apart from the agreed decisions that have been adopted in the Security Council the United States and the European Union, as you know, are taking tougher anti-Iranian sanctions. This, of course, causes questions. If we agree to work collectively, which agreement is embodied into a consensus decision of the Security Council, then what purpose is served by unilateral sanctions? And, of course, against this background we are worried by reports that there is serious consideration being given to military action against Iran. Just what this spells for a region where there are already grave problems in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere is hard even to imagine. I think that we should not forget about the part of the agreements within the Six framework that presupposes development of a dialogue with Iran, particularly not only on resolving all aspects of its nuclear program, but also on economic and commercial affairs and on regional security.
Let us not forget, by the way, that it was this kind of comprehensive approach that helped to unblock the situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula nuclear program, where all the parties managed to show the readiness to accommodate each other. I think this methodology is quite applicable to other conflicts as well.
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