Beijing, October 14: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said here Wednesday that it was “too early” to discuss sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.
“I believe it’s too early to speak of them,” Putin told reporters at the end of a visit to Beijing, when asked about the possibility of sanctions against Tehran.
“There is no need to scare the Iranians,” the prime minister said. “There is a need to reach agreements.”
Iran agreed at an October 1 meeting in Geneva to allow United Nations inspectors into a new nuclear site near its holy city of Qom and to send low-enriched uranium abroad for enrichment to a higher level.
The plan to enrich uranium abroad — which will be discussed further at a meeting in Vienna next Monday — has been seen as a possible way to defuse the Iranian nuclear standoff.
Putin said the international community needed to exhaust the negotiations route with Iran before considering any other options.
“If now, without making any concrete steps, we were to be announcing some sort of sanctions, then we would not be creating favorable conditions” for further talks and the resolution of the thorny issue, Putin said.
Putin’s comments in Beijing came while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who has sought to impose stricter sanctions against Iran if Tehran does not fulfill its promises — was visiting Russia.
As a permanent, veto-holding member of the UN Security Council, Russia would need to support new sanctions against Iran for them to be effective.
Russia has the closest ties to Iran of any major world power and has long been opposed to tougher sanctions.
Focusing on sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme is premature since negotiations are still under way, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday.
“It is not very clear why we should focus on sanctions right now,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Interfax and RIA-Novosti news agencies.
“First of all there are sanctions in place, and not few of them, and to say that the sanction track has lagged behind, in our view, is not completely fair, because we just got a first result on the negotiation-political track.”
He added: “We need to take those steps which were agreed in Geneva.”
Iran insists it has the right to develop nuclear technology, which it says is aimed at generating energy for its growing population.
Although Iran has oil, it is still dependent on petrol imports to meet about 40 percent of domestic consumption.
Israel is the only country in the Middle Ease that actually has nuclear weapons.
Observers say due the strong Jewish and pro-Israel lobbies in the US and some European countries, these countries have taken a hypocritical stance in relation to nuclear issues in the region.
Tehran had repeatedly protested against Israeli and US war threats, warning them that it would retaliate in the event of any strike against Iran.
—Agenices