Russia questions value of sanctions for Iran

MOSCOW — Russia's foreign minister said Tuesday that he doubted the usefulness of U.N. sanctions as a solution to the Iranian nuclear situation and affirmed Russia's reluctance to use Security Council intervention to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Russia and China have joined the Security Council's other permanent members — the United States, Britain and France — in calling on Iran to cease uranium enrichment. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appeared to draw a line over the question of sanctions against Iran.

"Sanctions are neither the best nor only way of tackling international problems," Lavrov said in Moscow.

Russia's and China's role in the Iranian nuclear talks is considered crucial. Both countries have veto power as permanent Security Council members and both have economic and military relationships with the Iranian government.

At talks Monday in London, Russia and China said they would not stand in the way of an emergency session of the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog with authority to refer the Iranian case to the Security Council. The 35-nation board will meet Feb. 2.

If the board refers Iran to the Security Council, Russia would have to choose between its interests in the West and its relationship with Iran.

Meanwhile, European governments have begun work on a resolution calling for the IAEA to refer Iran to the Security Council, The Associated Press reported.

The resolution draft also urges the council to push Iran "to extend full and prompt cooperation to the (IAEA)" and asks it to emphasize to Iran "that additional transparency measures are indispensable" to convince the international community that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, The AP reported.

But the draft stops short of calling for sanctions.

Also Tuesday, the Arab world's two major powers urged Vice President Dick Cheney to give negotiations more time in the Iran conflict.

As Cheney wound up a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah outside Riyadh, officials said the monarch had spoken of "the necessity of giving negotiations a chance" before pressing for Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council.

Cheney got a similar message from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak when they met earlier Tuesday in Cairo. Mubarak's spokesman Suleiman Awad said Cairo would "wait and see whether there will be a consensus" on dealing with Iran at the IAEA. "We call for Iran to show more flexibility and cooperation, and we call for a continuation of dialogue with Iran," Awad said.

He declared Egypt could not "ignore our long-standing principled position ... which refuses to put all this fuss and focus on the Iranian nuclear program without looking at Israel's nuclear arsenal."

Israel neither denies nor confirms it has nuclear weapons but is widely believed to have them.

Iran's embassy in Moscow called for the resumption of negotiations with the European Union. But Lavrov said talks between Iran and the EU could resume only after Iran agreed to abide by the moratorium on uranium enrichment that it violated this month when it broke IAEA monitoring seals at its enrichment plant in Natanz.