Russia minister praises new UN draft on Iran

Moscow, Dec 11: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised a revised draft UN Security Council resolution on Iran,which Britain and France plan to introduce today, Russian news agencies reported.

Russia had opposed an earlier version of the draft saying strong sanctions against Iran, suspected by the West of seeking to obtain own nuclear weapons, were too hard and could make Tehran even more defiant.

The revised version, backed by the United States, was circulated to the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council on Friday. The new draft narrowed bans to the most dangerous bomb-building materials and technology.

''The draft is different from the initial variant and contains changes based on the Russian proposals which aim at encouraging Iran to sit down at the negotiating table,'' RIA quoted Lavrov as saying.

''The new draft does not provide for blanket sanctions,'' Lavrov said according to Itar-Tass. ''It contains a concrete list of steps aimed at not allowing supplies of technology which causes concerns in the International Atomic Energy Agency.'' Lavrov however stopped short of saying whether Russia -- a veto-wielding member of the Security Council -- would back the revised version.

Reuters