Sanctions will undermine efforts to solve Iranian nuclear issue: Russia

TEHRAN,Dec.15(MNA) - Russia Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said that unilateral sanctions against Iran will undermine the efforts of the international community to solve the Iranian nuclear issue, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported. “Russia fully complies with all the UN Security Council resolutions regarding Iran,” Churkin said during a speech to the Security Council meeting on Thursday. He added that in some cases the sanctions are “extra-territorial” which are “categorically unacceptable from the standpoint of international law.” Iran has been under various sanctions mostly imposed by the United States since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Washington and the European Union have declared that the sanctions are aimed to force Iran to abandon its nuclear energy program, which they claim it includes a military aspect. Iran has strongly rejected the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.