IAEA Recent Report On Iran, Politically Motivated: Russia

Tehran, Nov 10, IRNA – UN nuclear watchdog's recent report on Iran is politically motivated, Russia Foreign Ministry said in a report published Wednesday. The Russian foreing diplomacy body has criticized the UN nuclear watchdog's report that says Iran appears to have worked on designing an atom bomb, saying it contained no new evidence and was being used to undercut efforts to reach a diplomatic solution. 'According to our initial evaluations, there is no fundamentally new information in the report,' the Foreign Ministry said in this statement. 'We are talking about a compilation of known facts, given a politicized tone,' it said, adding that interpretations of the report brought to mind the use of faulty intelligence to seek support for the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. In its statement, the Foreign Ministry said that the discussions in the IAEA report had turned into a tool for attempts to scuttle the Russian initiative and doom chances for a diplomatic settlement, warning that could sow the seeds for confrontation. 'Russia is very concerned that the report is being used to undermine efforts by the international community for the swiftest possible political and diplomatic resolution of the situation surrounding Iran's nuclear program,' it said. 'We also see in this an attempt to deliver a blow to Russian initiatives whose aim is to foster a solution.' “Amano's recent report on Iran ignores Tehran cooperation with IAEA and its readiness for more cooperation; IAEA has not clarified the way it has verified the alleged studies; members of the IAEA governing body have been suggested to accept the IAEA report without verification, are some of the deficiencies in the Amano report, the statement says. Earlier, in a barrage of Russian comments on Iran, Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said any new sanctions 'will be seen in the international community as an instrument for regime change in Tehran,' Interfax reported. 'That approach is unacceptable to us, and the Russian side does not intend to consider such proposals.' Russia's point man for Iran diplomacy, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, said Moscow opposed 'strengthening sanctions pressure on Iran' and is trying to bring other nations in line with that stance, Itar-Tass reported. 'We are showing them the faulty and destructive nature of that policy,' Ryabkov said. In its report on Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused Iran of an effort to deviate from the peaceful nuclear activities. A US official said the United States could impose more sanctions on Iran. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the Security Council should be convened and that Paris was ready to adopt 'unprecedented' sanctions if Tehran refused to cooperate with efforts to ensure it is not pursuing nuclear weapons. Russia has grudgingly approved four rounds of UN sanctions on Iran after watering them down, with China. But it has criticized Western states for imposing additional punitive measures and signaled in recent months that it would oppose a new push for sanctions in the Security Council. Russia is calling for a step-by-step process under which existing sanctions would be eased in return for actions by Tehran to dispel international concerns. In a visit that appeared to have been timed to coincide with the report's release, Ali Baqeri, deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, met Russian presidential Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday. In the meeting, they emphasized the need for new talks between Iran and six global powers -- Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany -- as well as the IAEA, the Russian Security Council said in a statement. Senior Russian officials including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have said there is no clear evidence Iran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb. They underscored a divide between Russia and the west over a report by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency that deepened US and European suspicions about Tehran's intentions. Washington and its western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down the west's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed the west's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing those sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path./end