Russia slams unilateral Iran sanctions

Russia has slammed unilateral sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union against Iran, warning them against risking Russian business interests.

“We do not support them. We think they are totally wrong in substance and in tactics,” Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told reporters in Brussels on Friday.

“We will certainly not accept any infringement of the rights and of the activities of Russian companies on the basis of those unilateral decisions,” he said.

The remarks came in response to a move by the US and the European bloc to impose sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas sectors — measures beyond the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions approved in May.

The Russian diplomat, whose country along with other veto-wielding members of Security Council approved the US-brokered sanctions, criticized the follow-on measures by the European Union as “not clever.”

“If you want to dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear program … then why the hell are you banning the supply of equipment for the oil and gas industry?” AFP quoted Chizhov as saying.

The Russia envoy criticized the sanctions for hindering diplomatic efforts to solve the West’s standoff with Iran over its nuclear program because Iranian officials “will immediately sense a difference of views” among world powers.

Expressing concern over the interference of the sanctions with Russian business interests in Iran, the envoy warned that the move could affect Moscow’s cooperation with the EU on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Russia’s cooperation with the European Union “will certainly depend on the degree to which the EU will be taking into consideration our sensitivities regarding the interests of Russian companies involved,” Chizhov said.

The United States and Israel have managed to persuade the EU to oppose Iran’s nuclear activities over alleged concerns that Tehran might be seeking nuclear weapons — a claim repeatedly rejected as politically-motivated by the Islamic Republic.

The allegations and the unilateral sanctions against Iran come while the US possesses a nuclear arsenal and has used atomic weapons in the past.