Sextet must avoid new demands to Iran: Russia

A Russian diplomat has called on six major world powers to refrain from putting new demands on Iran over its nuclear energy program.

“We call on our partners to refrain from tabling new demands which are able to undermine the trust already reached and to throw the situation back to the starting point,” Xinhua quoted Mikhail Ulyanov, head of Russia’s Foreign Ministry security and disarmament department, as saying on Friday.

He called on both Iran and the Sextet of world powers to strictly adhere to the interim nuclear deal clinched in the Swiss city of Geneva last November.

On January 20, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China — plus Germany started to implement and interim deal they had already reached in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear energy program.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities as a confidence-building measure and the world powers undertook to provide Iran with some sanctions relief and release more than USD 4 billion of Tehran’s frozen oil revenues.

Ulyanov’s remarks came despite constant and mounting threats by various US officials, including the secretaries of state and defense as well as President Barack Obama, that the “military option” is still on the table irrespective of the significant Geneva deal.

Iran and the six powers are scheduled to hold the next round of nuclear talks in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on February 18.

“All parties show a desire to continue the talks,” Ulyanov said.