Russia urges Iran to act moderate

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Russia's United Nations envoy Friday urged Iran to abide by a U.N. Security Council resolution and halt its illegal uranium enrichment program.

"We hope the Iranian leadership will properly assess the situation and take concrete measures to implement Resolution 1737 in order to restore trust in Iran's nuclear program," Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1737 was passed unanimously on Dec. 23, instituting sanctions against Tehran on nuclear technology and other materials that might help its suspected atomic weapons program.

Churkin said Iran had earlier failed to fulfill the demands of a previous Security Council resolution, calling on it to suspend uranium enrichment as a condition for negotiations on a package of proposals offered by six world powers: Russia, China, Britain, France, the United States and Germany, RIA Novosti said.

Iran responded by announcing it would not suspend its efforts to enrich uranium as its nuclear program did not contradict the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The Dec. 23 U.N. resolution incorporates Russia's insistence that Iranian officials should not be prohibited from international travel and that economic sanctions should not be imposed upon Iranian companies.

"The resolution also bans all activities related to uranium enrichment, chemical reprocessing, and the construction of heavy-water reactors and nuclear weapons delivery vehicles," RIA Novosti said.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this week that all Iranian contracts with Russian companies would remain in effect, including the construction of the controversial $800 million light-water nuclear reactor at Bushehr, and a contract to sell Russia's state-of-the-art Tor-M1 and S-300 anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile systems to Iran.