Russia to participate Iran nuclear prog talks
Moscow,
Jan
18:
Russian
Foreign
Minister
Sergei
Lavrov
will
attend
six-nation
talks
to
solve
the
contentious
issue
of
Iranian
nuclear
programme
on
January
22
in
Berlin.
''The meeting is expected to discuss ways of regulating the Iranian nuclear programme,'' a Russian source told Interfax news agency. Foreign Ministers from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany are likely to consider new sanctions against Tehran at the talks. Two sets of UN Security Council sanctions are currently in place against Tehran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Further rounds of more stringent sanctions have so far been blocked by China and Russia.
After talks with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni here yesterday, Mr Lavrov said Russia was determined to resolve the problem through political and diplomatic means and stressed the significance of coordinated action in the six-nation format.
Despite Western suspicions, Iran insists that its programme has peaceful goals and has pledged to clear up all remaining questions over the programme by late February.
UNI