The United States failed to secure backing for its campaign for targeted international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programmes at a meeting on Tuesday of major powers in Moscow. The No 3 State Department official, Nicholas Burns, told senior officials from Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain that sanctions should be imposed on Iran, especially after Tehran declared last week it was aiming for industrial-scale production of uranium, a US official said. Russia and China oppose sanctions and the parties came to no consensus in Moscow, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington after being briefed by US officials about the meeting. “Burns raised the issue of some form of sanctions and there will need to be further discussions on this,” Casey said. Later, Burns demanded an end to Russia’s cooperation with Iran in building the Islamic republic’s first civilian nuclear power station. “We also think it is important for countries to stop cooperation with Iran on nuclear issues, even on civilian nuclear issues like the Bushehr facility.”
Also, the chief of the Russian general staff said that Russia’s military would not intervene on one side or the other should the current Iran crisis lead to an armed conflict. “You are asking which side Russia will take. Of course Russia will not, at least I as head of the general staff, suggest the use of force on one side or the other. Just as was the case in Afghanistan,” General Yury Baluevsky told reporters.