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Transcript of Remarks by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov at Meeting with Members of Russian Media after Six-nation FM Meeting on Iranian Nuclear Program, Berlin, January 22, 2008.
The work on a resolution that continued for nearly half a year, since early September, is over. We did the resolution based on the conceptual understandings in the framework of the Six that any actions in the Security Council, firstly, should be aimed at the support of the IAEA, so as to clarify all vaguenesses in the previous nuclear activities of Iran and make certain that there are no military components in these activities; secondly, that these measures ought to be commensurate with the real situation; that is, if Iran shows the readiness for cooperation, this should find reflection in the actions of the Security Council. And thirdly, the readiness is continuously reaffirmed for talks if Iran accepts the terms set forth by the IAEA and backed by the UN Security Council. Although, of course, the resolution with all aspects of the situation taken into account is a compromise, it does reflect all these three fundamental propositions underlying the work of the Six.
It does not merely take into account, but welcomes the progress achieved in the work of the IAEA on clarifying the questions still outstanding from previous years about the nuclear program of Iran and expresses support for continued IAEA effort to close the questions that still remain unclarified. Iranians gave an assurance that they in the next two weeks or three are ready to close those issues.
The resolution expressly reiterates that in the event of Iran's agreement to the proposals of the Six direct talks will start to resolve all the questions linked to the Iranian nuclear program, involving all six nations, including the United States. And these talks will be dedicated not only to dealing with nuclear issues and not only to ensuring in practice the lawful rights of Iran to develop peaceful nuclear energy, but also to expanding economic cooperation with Iran in the nuclear field and to collaborating with Iran on regional problems, on security problems of this region. Although additional measures of pressure on Iran are provided for, they do not bear a tough sanctions character; they are formulated principally in the form of calls on all countries to show vigilance in developing various ties with Iran so as to prevent any violations of the nonproliferation regime. This is very important because the very role of the UN Security Council consists precisely in protecting the regime for the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons in the first place. So I think that our objectives have been achieved. This resolution is a draft preliminarily agreed upon by the Six; its cosponsors are three European countries and they will now submit this draft to the UN Security Council, where further work is to be done on it. Since there are fifteen member countries there, and only five of them were represented at the talks in Berlin, they of course have a lawful interest in studying this draft and considering how far it reflects their interests. We will be ready to consider the amendments and suggestions that may be forthcoming from other Security Council members. This is an important stage in resolving the situation around the Iranian nuclear program, but this stage has yet to be concluded.
Question: Are you satisfied with the outcome of the Six's meeting in Berlin?
Foreign Minister Lavrov: Yes, I am, because in the end we have received a text that differs from the initial demands of our western partners, which actually went along the lines of punishing Iran rather than supporting the efforts of the IAEA to clarify all the "blank spots" in Iran's past nuclear activities. Now this resolution, as I've said, meets the criteria on whose basis we are cooperating, notably to activate the UN Security Council solely for the purpose of ensuring the immutability of the nonproliferation regime, not for other political aims.
Source: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, www.russianembassy.org.
Poland and the Czech Republic want to coordinate actions during negotiations on the anti-missile shield, January 10, 2008
After his talks with Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, Chairman of the Council of Ministers Donald Tusk stressed that he accepted with great satisfaction the stance of the Czech side regarding common actions of the two countries during negotiations with the United States. "We want to coordinate our activities during the negotiations and exchange information", he added. According to Donald Tusk, separate standpoints of the Czech Republic and Poland concerning the installation of the anti-missile shield would be rather senseless.
The Polish Prime Minister is of the opinion that the most important issue concerning the shield is not the date of the finalisation of the negotiations, but the fulfilment of Polish and Czech expectations. Also the matters pertaining to energy safety, including the Northern Pipeline, cooperation of the two states within the European Union and the so-called historic policy in the region were raised during the meeting. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Poland would take advantage of Czech experiences during this state's presidency in the European Union.
According to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, relations between the two countries in terms of the level of understanding and ability to work out common standpoints are of exceptional character. During a few hours' visit in Prague, the head of Polish government was also received by President of the Czech Republic Vacláv Klaus.
Source: The Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Republic of Poland, http://www.kprm.gov.pl/