[Unofficial translation from Russian]

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Question: . . . And by how much should the EU dilute its draft resolution on Iran for Russia to support it?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: . . . As for the second question, we are not going to emaciate the efforts that are being taken to resolve the problem of Iran's nuclear program. We firmly agreed within the framework of the six nations to work together on the basis of the principles which we all agreed upon. These principles imply that all our work is aimed at achieving the sole goal of preventing any violations of the non-proliferation regime with full respect for the right of all the honest parties to the non-proliferation treaty to have access to the benefits of civilian nuclear power.

At the time we made a concrete proposal to Iran last June we agreed that if it refused to take it, we would together continue to concert further measures aimed at achieving that same goal of making sure that talks get under way. We agreed at the time that the measures we were going to take for this purpose should be commensurate with the real state of affairs and proportional to the real situation around the Iranian nuclear program; they should also be stage-by-stage measures. We were ready and still are ready to formulate such measures. The draft proposed by the European Troika goes far beyond the agreements which I mentioned. As a matter of fact, this is my reply to your question.

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