Russia, China: No new Iran sanctions

Russia and China have voiced their opposition to fresh sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, the Russian Foreign Ministry has announced.

After a meeting in Moscow, Russian and Chinese diplomats expressed “the mutual conviction that the application of new, additional sanctions against Iran will not lead to the desired result,” Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Earlier on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry 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, adding that sanctions cannot fundamentally resolve the case.

On Tuesday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano’s latest report on Iran’s nuclear activities was distributed to the 35 members of the Board of Governors of the agency.

In the report, the IAEA accused Iran of conducting activities related to developing nuclear weapons before 2003, adding that these activities “may still be ongoing.”

This is while the IAEA chief’s visit to Washington for talks with US officials before the publication of the report raised serious questions about its objectivity and sincerity.

Tehran dismissed the report as “unbalanced, unprofessional and prepared with political motivation and under political pressure mostly by the United States.”

In reaction to the report, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iranians will not retreat from their rights even “one iota.”

The United States, the Israeli regime and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program.

The UN Security Council has already imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. The US and the European Union have also adopted separate measures against Tehran in order to block Western investment in the Iran’s energy sector.

Iran argues that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA, it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.