Russian Deputy FM: Moscow to Pass No More Resolutions against Iran

"We have made it clear in the closed regime with counterparts from the US and the EU that Russia would not pass any more sanctions resolutions on Iran," Sergey Ryabkov said, Itar Tass reported.

The deputy foreign minister said Moscow expects that the sanctions against Iran to be lifted as quickly as possible.

"Iran’s production and its export potential may not be restored within several months," Ryabkov said and added, “Bear in mind that the sanctions against Iran have not been lifted. We expect that the sanctions will be lifted as soon as possible.”

The top diplomat also said the US Congress can not gain support necessary to hinder implementation of the agreement between the sextet and Iran.

"I believe the voting contra at the Congress would not be that massive to have a possible majority overcome a possible veto from the president," he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian deputy foreign minister said Moscow will not have a key role in modifying the Arak heavy water reactor in Iran and added, "We are ready to further participate in this process, but originally this project was not of the Russian construction and we did not deal with them. Other countries of six powers rather than Russia should have a leading role in modifying the Arak reactor.”

Ryabkov said the process to modify the reactor in Arak is difficult and it is up to an international consortium, which is yet to be determined, to deal with the actual issues.

Under the Lausanne accords, the reactor’s existing core must be destroyed or withdrawn from the country together with spent fuel from it. At the same time, Iran will accumulate heavy water only in amounts required for the operation of a rebuilt reactor, selling surplus volumes abroad in the next 15 years.

The Russian diplomat went on to add that Russia and Iran will continue consultations soon on modernizing the Fordow facility and producing isotopes.

"Modernizing the Fordow facility is an indivisible part of the agreement (on Iran’s nuclear program). Several cascades will be modernized for isotope production, while several others will be frozen," he said.

"We will deal with organizing production of isotopes at Fordow, the issue is being discussed in the bilateral format. We held several rounds of talks on this matter. The timeframe until production is launched will take several years," Ryabkov noted.

The senior diplomat said Russia and Iran are discussing the details of the implementation of the agreement on the export of uranium to Russia.

"There is a decision that the excess material accumulated in Iran - that’s about 8 metric tons - will be will be exported to Russia in exchange for supplies of natural uranium," he said.

"We are at the stage of the bilateral discussions of this issue with Iran, I do not want to go into detail of the ongoing work," he added.

He added that Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be able to close the issue of providing access of organization’s inspectors to the nuclear facility in Parchin.

"Talking about Parchin, the issue was raised (at negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program). As far as I understand, we will close this issue in the framework of fulfilling transparency measures and decisions reached on IAEA inspectors’ access to facilities in Iran, as well as during sessions of the joint commission," he noted.

The diplomat added that IAEA and Iran plan to solve all issues connected with future research "until the end of 2015".

According to the deputy foreign minister, Russia’s refusal to work on the Iranian nuclear deal could lead to even worse dynamics of oil prices that the one that has developed today.

"The boycott of the Iranian deal by Russia may have led to even worse dynamics of oil prices compared to today," he said.

"As for the Oil-for-Goods scheme, the anti-Iranian sanctions have not been lifted yet, these are not only unilateral US and EU sanctions," he said.

Ryabkov noted that sanctions should not and cannot bear a relation to the lawful economic cooperation with Iran, "including in the form of such pseudo-barter or not fully barter deals."

"Therefore, we are interested in continuing this work, and we are determined to continue it. I am prepared to explain and give reasons in favour of why we are so confident about it," he said.

Moscow has been watching inner domestic processes in various countries, which emerge following the agreement.

"We can see regional forces want to influence preparations for implementation of the mutual action plan," he said.

At the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, Russia worked for search of a balance of interests, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a news conference on Friday.

"There were many ideas, they were multifaceted - beginning from the basic statements and to detailed technical solutions," he said. "Many our suggestions have been included in the final agreement."

"Here a question of the initiator is not an issue, we have not applied for patents, we were working jointly and tried at all the stages to have solutions reflect a balance of interests and not to affect anybody, not allowing a military solution," the deputy foreign minister said.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14 reached a conclusion on a lasting nuclear agreement that would terminate all sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear energy program after coming into force.

The 159-page deal has its own opponents and proponents both in Iran and the other countries that are parties to the JCPOA, particularly the US.
While the United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution to endorse the deal, the text of the document needs to be ratified by both Iran's Parliament and the US Congress.

President Obama has promised a swift veto in the event of a Congress rejection of the agreement in September. Lawmakers would then have to find enough votes to override the president. 20 of 46 Senate democrats have so far supported the deal and Obama administration only needs 13 more votes to defeat a veto override.