US,Russia rule out imminent sanctions on Iran

“Iran has the right to have civilian nuclear energy,but not nuclear weapons,” she said via a Russian interpreter. She said neither Russia nor US is seeking to impose sanctions against Iran under the current circumstances when the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany were holding dialogue with Tehran and that sanctions would be premature. Russia was being “extremely cooperative in the work we have done together” on the issue,she said.

However,Clinton also said that in the absence of “significant progress” in the “engagement track” with Iran,”we will be seeking to rally international opinion behind additional sanctions.” Lavrov said that threats of new sanctions under current circumstances will be “counterproductive.”

“Russia is in principle very reserved on sanctions,as they rarely produce results,” Lavrov said.

He said the sanctions could only be used if diplomacy and politics fail and in this could not be said in the case of Iran. Russia is building Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran and has so far been reluctant to send nuclear fuel for its operationalisation.

“We are not asking anything of each other on Iran,because it would be ridiculous to make requests on an issue where our positions coincide,” Lavrov said.

Clinton arrived here last night on a three-day visit and the focus of her talks with the Russian leadership will be on resetting the bilateral relations badly damaged on a score of issues in the last years of Bush administration.

The two leaders also discussed a recent Obama Administration decision to scale back a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe. Also on the agenda of Hillary’s talks are Afghanistan,nuclear-armed North Korea,NATO expansion,the situation in Georgia after its conflict with Russia last year,human rights and arms control,including the START pact.

START,which limits US and Russian arsenals and is seen as a cornerstone of Cold War-era strategic arms control,expires on December 5. Clinton said negotiators are on schedule to complete an agreement by then.