 The Russian foreign minister has said that Moscow has not decided whether Iran should be considered a threat, saying it will be guided by UN nuclear experts. Sergei Lavrov was responding to remarks from Manouchehr Mottaki, his Iranian counterpart, that Russia and China "had officially told us ... [of] their opposition to sanctions and military attacks" against the Islamic Republic.
| "Shhhh! That's wasn't an official announcement!" |
"We have made no such announcements. In such an important and serious area like nuclear non-proliferation, we can make a decision only based on the opinions of experts," Lavrov told reporters.
"The inspections that have been held in Iran do not allow us to conclude that Iran has the technology to create weapons of mass destruction. But, on the other hand, these inspections do not allow us to make the opposition conclusion." He spoke a day after discussion started between the five veto-holding members of the UN Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - over a resolution demanding that Iran curb its nuclear programme. |