Russia's Medvedev does not rule out Iran sanctions

IRAN SANCTIONS: Russian President may go along with imposition of sanctions against Iran, albeit reluctantly. (Getty Images)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday he did not rule out fresh sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

The Kremlin chief said it was not only the West which was concerned about Iran, but warned the international community needed to tread carefully when discussing any possible sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

"Sanctions are not very effective on the whole, but sometimes you have to embark on sanctions and it is the right thing to do," Medvedev told the Valdai discussion group of Russia experts in Moscow.

US President Barack Obama, who came into office pledging a policy of engagement toward Iran, has suggested Tehran may face harsher international sanctions unless it accepts good-faith talks by the end of September.

Iran last week turned over a package of proposals to world powers in which it said it was willing to address global nuclear disarmament and other international issues.

Medvedev travels later this month to the United Nations General Assembly and the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Iran will be discussed on the sidelines.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last Thursday the Iranian proposals could be a basis for negotiations.

Lavrov said the United Nations Security Council  - on which Russia has a permanent seat and a veto - would not support oil sanctions against Iran, the world's fifth-largest crude oil exporter and a major importer of gasoline. (Reuters)  

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READERS' COMMENTS

Befriending a fiend!
Posted by Syed Suhail Khalid, Mysore, India on Wednesday 16 September 2009 at 03:47 UAE time


When President Medvedev said in agreement with USA that sanctions against Iran couldn't be ruled out,I was just reminded of an accident in Venus circus in India. An athlete put his hand around a lion's neck and promptly the lion tore off his hand.The athlete died of brain haemorrhage.

Here Russia is that athlete and USA that maneating lion.

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