Six powers haven't agreed on Iran sanctions: Russia
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday contradicted the United States and Britain, saying there was no agreement among six major powers on whether to pursue new U.N. sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program.
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters: "There have been no firm agreements or understandings or any kind of concerted work in this regard."
Senior foreign ministry officials from Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany, which are leading efforts to persuade Tehran to freeze its nuclear enrichment, program spoke on the telephone earlier on Wednesday.
The United States and Britain said the six agreed to consider possible outlines of a fourth sanctions resolution at the U.N. Security Council since Tehran has yet to clearly respond to their July 19 offer of economic incentives to suspend nuclear enrichment.
Churkin said the issue had not come up in New York and made it clear that he was in no hurry to raise it.
"The main thing to remember (is) that the negotiating track is open, it is being pursued, there are contacts between the parties," he said. "Of course, some parties do raise the issue of sanctions from time to time."
He also said Russia had set no deadline for Iran to respond to the July 19 offer.
"We haven't set any deadlines ourselves for their response and there is ongoing dialogue," he said. "Certainly there is a matter which is going to be discussed ... by the ministers in September."
He said the talks would take place at a meeting of foreign ministers from the six countries on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly next month.
Churkin said Russia would have preferred a clear response from Tehran but it's "more complicated than that as we all know. But we do believe that dialogue can continue."
Western countries believe Iran's civilian nuclear program is a front for developing weapons. Tehran denies the charge.
Churkin indicated Iran might still accept the offer, the full details of which have not been made public.
"We certainly do not believe that it is a foregone conclusion that it is not going to be successful," he said.
(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Alan Elsner)
