2006年VOA标准英语-Russian Foreign Minister: Iran Sanctions W（在线收听）

By Peter Heinlein
United Nations
08 March 2006

Russia's foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has indicated Moscow will oppose U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran. The Council could begin discussing the Iran nuclear issue as early as next week.

Sergei Lavrov  
  
The Russian foreign minister said Wednesday Moscow wants the International Atomic Energy Agency to remain in the lead in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions. He spoke as the atomic agency was forwarding its Iran file to the Security Council for review.

The United States wants the council to sanction Tehran for alleged violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Diplomats say preliminary discussions on the matter could begin as early as next week.

But speaking at U.N. headquarters Wednesday, Lavrov suggested that sanctions would not work.

"I don't think sanctions, as a means to solve a crisis, have ever achieved a goal in recent history," he said.  "I reiterate, we must rely on the professional advice of IAEA, the watchdog of the non-proliferation regime hired by all of us, and if we all agree that the Iranian nuclear problem is about ensuring that the non-proliferation regime is not violated, then let's rely on the people we hired to look after this regime."

There is broad agreement among the Security Council's five veto-wielding, permanent members, Russia, China, Britain, France and the United States, that Iran has failed to meet international demands that it stop all uranium enrichment activity.

But Russia and China favor a go-slow approach in the council. China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya told VOA that Beijing still wants the matter settled at the atomic energy headquarters in Vienna.

"IAEA is the main organ that will be in charge of this matter and I believe the last couple weeks all sides are working for a way out of it," he said.  "So a diplomatic negotiated solution is the best way out of it."

Washington's U.N. Ambassador John Bolton has been in the forefront of efforts to bring the Iran case to the Security Council. Speaking to reporters recently, he called Iran an important test case for the 15-member U.N. body.

 
John Bolton 
  
"If you say an Iran with nuclear weapons is unacceptable, and that it's appropriate to have Iran in the Security Council, which all five permanent members have said, then you have to ask, what is the Council going to do about it? We have ideas," he said.  "We've talked to the Russians and the Chinese about it, British and French, and we're prepared to proceed, so if they're serious about their status as permanent members, I should think they would want to work together and keep the consensus we've got."

Ambassador Bolton has said he sees the Security Council's role as strengthening the hand of the nuclear watchdog agency in pressing Iran to comply with its obligations under nuclear non-proliferation treaties.

Diplomats say the council's first step is likely to be a statement reinforcing the atomic agency's call for Tehran to suspend all nuclear enrichment and stop resisting IAEA investigations. That could come sometime next week.