Use of force against Iran ‘unacceptable’ - Russia

RUSSIA: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has rejected as “unacceptable” any use of force against Iran as a resolution to the Western dispute over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

“The use of military force against Iran is an unacceptable option,” Voice of Russia quoted Lavrov as saying at the 49th Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

Israel has repeatedly threatened Iran with a military attack over the country’s nuclear energy program, which the US, Tel Aviv and their allies allege may be a cover for a military agenda.

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said in December 2012 that the US was preparing for potential use of military action against Iran.

In November 2012, Iran protested in a letter to the UN Security Council that Israel’s threats are in flagrant violation of the most fundamental provisions of the Charter and the basic principles of international law which prohibit any act of aggression.

Washington and the European Union have also used the nuclear allegations as a pretext to impose illegal unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iran refutes the allegations and argues that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The Russian foreign minister further criticized the illegal Western unilateral sanctions against Iran, saying that they are an impediment to the resolution of the standoff.

“We should persuade Iran that we are not talking about the change of the regime, because unilateral sanctions are not about nonproliferation but exactly about the change of the regime. And this is how this mistrust could be overcome,” Lavrov said.

China and Russia, as two veto-wielding powers at the UN Security Council, have persistently expressed their support for Iran’s nuclear energy program, voicing opposition to the sanctions against Tehran.

Russian presidential press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said on January 25 that, “We have witnessed numerous times when sanctions did not create any obstacles for very grave situations, but they were significantly harming the civilian population, the people of the country, and making their living unbearable.

So sanctions are not every time a good way or the best way.”

PRESS TV