Both Russia and Germany come out for political and diplomatic settlement of
Iran's nuclear crisis, Russian Vice-premier and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov
said on Friday in St. Petersburg after talks with visiting German Defense
Minister Franz Josef Jung.
"The world experience shows that sanctions prove ineffective, as a rule,"
Ivanov said in reply to a question whether a possible resolution on Iran if
adopted by the UN Security Council might affect military-technical cooperation
between Russia and Iran, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Ivanov said the two ministers focused on problems of nonproliferation of
weapons of mass destruction and missile technologies not only in respect to
Iran.
"New threats that did not exist earlier have appeared which makes us focus
more attention than before on the nonproliferation problem," Ivanov said.
"This is a very serious problem, international regimes should be
strengthened, and in that sense the positions of Russia and Germany are fully
identical," he said.
Ivanov said Russia will implement the contract to supply Tor-M1air defense
systems to Iran in full. "Russia has signed a contract with Iran on supply of
close-range air defense systems Tor-M1 to Iran. The contract will undoubtedly be
fulfilled if no force major factors interfere."
"We strictly observe all our commitments, and if told that Russia allegedly
helps in certain prohibited programs we say it is mere propaganda, " Ivanov
added.