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Question: What do you think are the prospects for resolving the Iranian problem?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: The prospects are clear. A meeting of the ministers on Iran will take place on Friday. Deputy ministers of the six countries are working for its preparation. We presume that our chief objective is to remove all the unclear points that still remain in the nuclear program of Iran and lift all suspicions, in order to make certain that it bears an entirely peaceful character and has no military component. This was the exact aim of the efforts of the Six and of the decisions of the IAEA Board of Governors, subsequently backed up by the UN Security Council, throughout the last few years. According to IAEA data, the agreements that have at last been reached between this agency and Teheran and which are directed to close within a certain period of time - two or three months - all the questions which still have not received an answer from Iran about the nature of its nuclear program - these agreements are being carried out. Moreover, the agency reports that the work is proceeding ahead of the schedule agreed with Iran and there are all grounds to expect that, if that's the way it goes further, we'll achieve a very important result in the work on the Iranian file, notably we will have clarified the issues regarding which the Iranian side still has not given exhaustive answers.

We fully support IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei and consider it important that all the countries, primarily those forming the Six and directly concerning themselves with Iran's nuclear file, should respect his professional opinion in full measure and do everything to back up his efforts, which have begun to yield results.

Question: Are new measures by the UN Security Council necessary?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: The measures which the UN Security Council took in the past have begun to work, so we must now concentrate on getting the schedule for closing the problem themes in relations between Iran and the IAEA fulfilled. We do not rule out that the Security Council may in the future examine this entire situation. But in this case I would say that it should back the accords reached between the IAEA and Iran and call for their soonest implementation. Hopefully these arguments, which are not predicated on any hidden calculations or any hidden aims having no bearing on the nonproliferation regime, will be heard by our partners, when the foreign ministers of the six countries gather here on Friday in order to consider their further actions.

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