Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attacked European powers' approach to Iran's nuclear works in talks with top EU officials that were set to prepare a summit on closer EU-Russia relations.
Although Lavrov voiced willingness to apply "reasonable" and "proportional" measures against Iran for its nuclear program, he warned that a draft United Nations resolution prepared by Britain, France and Germany went too far. According to AFP, the Russian minister noted that "measures which we would introduce would have to be reasonable, take account of the real situation, should be proportional given the actual situation as regards the nuclear program in Iran and should also be in stages."
"We were prepared and are still prepared to draw up measures of that sort," he told journalists. "What the EU troika drew up went way beyond what had been agreed," he added.
The resolution calls for a series of nuclear- and ballistic missile-related trade sanctions, a freeze of assets related to Iran's nuclear and missile programs and travel bans on scientists involved in those programs.
