US sanctions on Iran, Syria harm Russian business: Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the US’ unilateral embargoes against Iran and Syria inflict losses on “the interests of Russian business.”

“Unilateral US sanctions against Syria and Iran are increasingly becoming extra-territorial in nature and are touching upon the interests of Russian business,” Lavrov said on Saturday after meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Russian port city of Vladivostok.

He added that Russian banks were particularly being affected by the bans on Syria and Iran.

Lavrov also said that “In Syria we are not supporting any sanctions because sanctions will not bring about anything.”

The US has imposed asset freezes against more than 100 members of the Syrian government and banned American firms from doing business with them.

Washington also slapped sanctions against the Syrian state oil firm Sytrol last month.

Meanwhile, Britain, France and Germany on Friday called on the rest of the European Union (EU) to impose new sanctions on Tehran over its peaceful nuclear energy program.

“It is necessary to increase pressure on Iran, to intensify sanctions, to add further to EU sanctions that are already enforced,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Cyprus.

At the beginning of 2012, the US and the EU approved new sanctions against Iran’s oil and financial sectors. The embargoes aim to prevent other countries from purchasing the Iranian oil or transacting with the Central Bank of Iran.

Washington and the EU have declared that the bans are meant to force Iran to abandon its nuclear energy program, which they claim to include a military component.

Iran has vehemently refuted the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to use the nuclear technology for peaceful objectives.

The Russian foreign minister also added that Moscow is set to push the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to back a Syria peace accord brokered in Geneva in June.

“We stressed in a meeting with the US Secretary of State that Russia will push for the Security Council’s approval of the Geneva communiqué,” Lavrov stated.

On June 30, the Geneva meeting agreed on a plan for a political transition in Syria but stopped short of calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.