Russia regretted Iran's apparent refusal to accept an offer from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on uranium enrichment, Interfax quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying Friday.

However, he appeared cool on imposing further sanctions on Iran, instead calling for "major efforts" to resume negotiations on all aspects of the Iranian nuclear program, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

The agency quoted Lavrov as saying that punishing Iran was not a "sober-minded approach."

"Any sober-minded approach should above all be governed by responsibility for maintaining the nonproliferation regime and for eliminating any risks. This responsibility belongs primarily to countries that have nuclear weapons," he said.

"We should not take steps that would jeopardize the IAEA's further work in this country," Lavrov said, urging all relevant parties to heed the U.N. nuclear watchdog's opinion.

Under an IAEA-brokered draft deal, most of Iran's existing low-grade enriched uranium would be shipped to Russia and France, where it would be processed into fuel rods with a purity of 20 percent and returned to Iran.

Iran has so far not responded to the offers, and posed a counterplan earlier this month in which it wanted the West to either sell it nuclear fuel or swap nuclear fuel for Iran's enriched uranium in smaller batches instead of at once as the U.N. plan requires.

The United States and its Western allies have accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under the disguise of a civilian program. Iran has denied the accusation and stressed its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

Discussions held in New York on Saturday between negotiators from Iran, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany on the issue in New York ended with no clear agreement.

Go to Forum >>0 Comments