Russia will not allow any more sanctions resolutions against Iran to be adopted by the United Nations Security Council, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday, Sputnik reported.
Last month, Iran and the six major powers (the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany) reached a deal which will lift sanctions against Tehran in return for temporary limits on its nuclear program.
The UNSC had adopted several rounds of sanctions against Iran concerning its nuclear program before Resolution 2231 passed on July 20 endorsing the deal, which paved the way for the lifting of restrictions against Tehran.
"When Resolution 1929, the last sanctions resolution, was adopted… we made it clear behind closed doors to our US and EU colleagues that Russia will not let another sanctions resolution against Iran be passed," Ryabkov told reporters. Resolution 1929 approved in September 2010 banned supplying conventional weapons to Iran. The resolution was cited as the reason behind the suspension of the contract on the delivery of five Russian S-300 air defense systems to Tehran.
Ryabkov stressed that continuing pressure to force Iran to make more concessions than those outlined in the nuclear agreement would be a dead-end road. The UN arms embargo against Tehran will be replaced with a new mechanism, Ryabkov said.
The July 20 UNSC resolution kept in place restrictions on Iran's arms trade for five years and a ban on activities related to ballistic missiles for eight years.
"Strictly speaking, this is not an embargo, but a new regime. What will exist is not the embargo, but the regime that requires deliveries falling into one of seven categories of the current UN arms embargo list to receive the Security Council's approval," Ryabkov said.
