MOSCOW, April 19 (RIA Novosti) - The deputy foreign ministers of all five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany voiced concerns Tuesday over the lack of positive Iranian response to a UN demand it end uranium enrichment by late April.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said the concerns had been raised at a Tuesday meeting in Moscow that had broken up without producing any concrete decisions.
"The Iranian government has made no positive steps demanded in the February 4 resolution of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency followed by a statement of the UN Security Council chairman on March 29, including to cease uranium enrichment activity," Kamynin said.
Mohammed ElBaradei, director of IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, visited Tehran April 13-14 after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that the Islamic Republic had successfully produced low-enriched uranium.
The IAEA head said he could not yet confirm that Iran had enriched uranium to 3.5%, sufficient to produce sustained fission reactions in nuclear power plants, but called on the Islamic Republic to suspend all nuclear activities until the end of April to resolve outstanding issues by the deadline set by the UN Security Council.
In a long-running dispute, Iran is suspected of seeking to build nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program. Iran has dismissed such accusations, and insisted on its right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Security Council, where Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France are permanent members and which has the power to impose sanctions if the country is found in breach of its non-proliferation commitments, will make a decision following ElBaradei's report.
Russia and China, with strong business interests in Iran, have so far opposed economic sanctions against Tehran.
