Russia warns against Iran sanctions

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=129036§ionid=351020104



Russia and China have warned against attempts to lobby for further sanctions against Iran in a UN Security Council vote due to be held on Tehran's nuclear program.

"We are against forcing the voting process," Interfax news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying in Beijing on Friday.

The United States has been stepping up efforts to persuade veto-wielding UNSC members Russia and China to agree to a new round of sanctions against Iran.

The US and European powers, along with Israel, accuse Iran of efforts to obtain nuclear bombs.

Iran, however, strongly dismisses the allegations, insisting its nuclear activities are completely peaceful, aimed at meeting the growing domestic energy demand and providing the radio medicine needed for treating cancer patients.

A number of Western diplomats have revealed that the Security Council is expected to vote next week on the US-brokered resolution which, if approved, would impose new sanctions on Iran.

The US-led campaign for sanctions comes despite the issuance of a fuel swap declaration by Iran, Brazil and Turkey on May 17.

Under the declaration, Iran agreed to send some 1,200 kg of its 3.5 percent enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for a total of 120 kg of 20 percent uranium for the Tehran research reactor.

"Even if approved by the UN Security Council, a new anti-Iran resolution would be inefficient," Ali-Akbar Salehi, director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on Thursday.

Salehi added that due to Tehran's lawful position and strong diplomacy the case would eventually end in Iran's favor.


5 +1 negotiations, IAEA UN, Iran US, nuclear energy, nuclear fuel swap, Tehran declaration, Turkey Brazil Iran deal, UN security council, World United News

'Tehran declaration leaves no excuse'

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=127807§ionid=351020101


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has termed Tehran's nuclear fuel swap declaration as the last opportunity for the West to resolve Iran's nuclear case.

"There are no excuses left as Tehran's declaration is the best opportunity. We have taken important steps," President Ahmadinejad said during a speech in the southeastern province of Kerman.

Iran, Turkey and Brazil issued a trilateral nuclear declaration in the Iranian capital of Tehran on May 17.

According to the declaration, Iran agrees to ship 1200 kg of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for 120 kg of 20-percent enriched fuel it requires for producing medical isotopes at the Tehran Research Reactor.

"We have a reactor in Tehran which produces radio medicines. Around 800,000 people annually use such medicines. Twenty five years ago, Iran bought nuclear fuel enriched up to the level of 20 percent from Argentina for use in its Tehran Research Reactor. It is currently running out of fuel," he added.

President Ahmadinejad also urged the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to support Iran's nuclear activities.

Moreover, he said that US President Barack Obama "should bear in mind that if he does not use this opportunity, Iranians are unlikely to give him a new chance."

"We hate bullying and aggression. However, we will not succumb to aggression and tyranny. We consider the international relations today as unjust. We want just relation with world countries," he went on to say.

"All world nations have joined the powerful and revolutionary rank of the Iranian nation. Those arrogant and tyrant powers should either give up or be obliterated," the Iranian chief executive further explained.

"Some countries themselves possess nuclear weapons, they wield veto powers and they enjoy powerful armies. They occupy lands and they kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. They are among the most dictatorial regimes and they support the most dictatorial regimes in the world and at the same time they chant the slogans of supporting the human rights," he stated.

"The Iranian nation favors justice in all areas. As for the international arena, we favor just relations all over the world. We hate aggression and will not bow to aggression," he concluded.