Question: How could the Russia MFA comment on yesterday's approval by the EU Foreign Affairs Council of additional sanctions against Iran?

Answer: We have repeatedly said that in our view the practice of using unilateral or collective sanctions on Iran that go beyond the UN Security Council sanctions regime against the country is unacceptable. For this not only undermines our joint efforts to seek a political and diplomatic settlement of the situation around the Iranian nuclear program, but also shows disregard for the carefully negotiated and coordinated provisions of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

We also categorically reject any attempts to project EU and US domestic legislation onto third countries and use sanctions against companies and individuals complying in good faith with the requirements of the UNSC resolutions.

The EU set of sanctions, as well as the previously adopted US package of additional restrictive measures go far beyond tackling non-proliferation tasks in the context of Iran's nuclear program and are not conducive to finding a speedy political and diplomatic solution to the problem. For us this is obvious.

Given the deep-rooted practice of the employment by certain Group of Six members of additional unilateral sanctions on Iran, there is a legitimate question: either we work together in the format of the Group of Six as well as in the format of the UN Security Council on the basis of a common systemic approach, or each will act on his own priorities. We regret to say that all the recent steps of the EU and the US to build pressure on Iran show their disregard for the principles of working together.