[Unofficial translation from the Russian]

Question: How can you comment on the outcome of yesterday's meeting on Iran?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: The talks within the framework of the Six with the participation of Javier Solana are continuing, as are Solana's contacts with the Iranian negotiators. He has additional meetings ahead. Yesterday we heard his story of how matters stand at present. We believe that there are all the chances to agree on the start of negotiations - agree on the conditions that would be acceptable to the Six and to IAEA and to the UN Security Council and to Iran, of course. For those chances to be realized, it is necessary that all the participants in the process show good will and concentrate on the main task - to achieve a compromise ensuring, on the one hand, the nonproliferation regime for weapons of mass destruction, in this case nuclear weapons, and on the other - the right of Iran to legitimate activities for enjoying the fruits of peaceful nuclear energy. Of course, I heard statements from some of the participants in yesterday's talks that it was necessary to continue working out sanctions which could be applied should this process fail. I wouldn't make forecasts right now that might acquire an inertia of their own and have an adverse impact on the positions of this or that participant. I repeat, the chances for the start of negotiations are there. It is necessary to use them. For this purpose everybody ought to strive for negotiations, not actions which will only complicate the achievement of this goal.

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