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QUESTION: Minister Lavrov, Secretary Clinton assured the U.S. Congress earlier this month that the United States has successfully laid the groundwork with its P-5+1 allies for - quote, unquote - "crippling" international sanctions against Iran in the event that Tehran fails to suspend its pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability. Is that true? Because the last time that you were heard from on this subject was when you, speaking for the Russian Government, stated on April 11 - quote - "It would be unrealistic to expect us to raise pressure on Iran." So which is it, sir?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I have to slightly correct my reporter, Sergey, since you slightly corrected your reporter. See, we are very mutually reinforcing.

We are in the process of laying the groundwork for making the case for tougher sanctions. We have not laid the groundwork. And I think that the case that we're making to our partners in the P-5+1 is to reach out to Iran, which we agreed to do, and have made a proposal to the Iranians. But we are very watchful as to how Iran responds, and we will continue to consult with and hope that we can make progress based on the kind of proposals that we're interested in pursuing.

FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV: (Via interpreter) I would like to add that as far as the Iranian nuclear program is concerned, there are many aspects there, which is equally true of the sanctions which apply to Iran. It is not that simple. There are collective decisions adopted in the United Nations Security Council, and those oblige all countries in the world to behave in a particular way and to fulfill certain requirements.

But there are also unilateral sanctions that the United States or the European Union have imposed in addition to the United Nations Security Council with regard to Iran. We do not think that this does not fully help to live up to the challenge. We keep telling our partners that unilateral sanctions are not in line with our collective actions. But those decisions are made by the United States or the European Union.

As far as they are concerned, we are going to adhere to the agreements reached within the format of P-5+1. Those arrangements quite recently were supplemented significantly and were developed significantly at the meeting of the representatives of the six countries in London, and those proposals have been conveyed to the Iranian side. We have heard from Iran something to the effect that Iran does not oppose these proposals. Iran has its own proposals which we are ready to discuss. And currently, we can see the taking shape of preconditions that will make it possible to prepare for real negotiations based on the proposals that we have on the table.

I have never said that we are against any pressure on Iran. I have just said that we did not see the meaning, the sense in any harsh sanctions against Iran. But as far as pressure is concerned, if we understand by pressure, the efforts aimed at convincing Iran to return to the negotiations table - we are applying such efforts in an active and robust manner.