Russia, China Against Fresh Anti-Iran Sanctions

Tehran, Nov 12, IRNA -- Moscow and Beijing voiced their opposition to new round of US-motivated sanctions against Islamic Republic of Iran over its nuclear program in the Russian capital on Thursday. In a meeting in Moscow, Russian and Chinese diplomats expressed their “mutual conviction that the application of new and additional sanctions against Iran will not lead to the desired result,” Reuters cited Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement. China’s Foreign Ministry had earlier rejected the idea of imposing additional sanctions against Iran calling for further dialogue to resolve concerns about the Islamic Republic's nuclear issue. “We always believe that dialogue and cooperation is the right way to solve the Iranian nuclear issue,” China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. He noted that sanctions cannot fundamentally resolve the case. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano's latest report on Iran's nuclear activities was distributed among 35 members of IAEA’s Board of Governors on Tuesday. Tehran rejected the report and called it biased, politically motivated and unprofessional. “Iranians will not retreat an iota from their right to peaceful nuclear activities,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in reaction to IAEA’s report./end