MOSCOW, June 2 (RIA Novosti) - Countries leading negotiations to solve a long-running crisis around Iran's nuclear program have agreed that military force would not be used against Iran under any circumstances, the Russian foreign minister said Friday.
The United States, France, and Britain had been pushing for the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, because they suspect the country of the preparing to produce nuclear weapons, and previously the United States had said it was considering military options.
The Iran Six - the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany - met Thursday in Vienna to discuss the problem, and Sergei Lavrov told journalists Friday: "I can unambiguously say that all agreements of yesterday's meeting ... rule out the use of military action."
Lavrov said Tehran would not be issued an ultimatum on when to respond to the Iran Six's proposal, but that it should respond in several weeks.
"There is no categorical deadline. But I think we are talking about several weeks," he said, adding that he had been surprised by reports Iran would face a deadline of seven days to respond.
"This is not true," he said. "The period is much longer."
Detailed proposals have yet to be given to Iran, he said: "They will be delivered when we coordinate terms acceptable to Iran's leadership, and then a certain time will have to pass while the proposals are considered."
Russia has proposed setting up a joint venture to enrich uranium for Iran on Russian soil and to construct new-technology reactors in a move to dispel suspicions that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, and Lavrov said this option was still open.
"The joint venture proposal remains on the table," Lavrov said. "Yesterday, all parties confirmed this."
He added that the U.S. had informed Russia in advance that it wanted direct talks with Iran - which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced Wednesday - although he said the possibility had not been discussed yet, and that the Iran Six were all ready to join direct talks.
"What was yesterday coordinated [at a meeting of the six countries in Vienna] means that all the six of us, as a group of associates, are ready to hold talks with Iran," Lavrov said.
The minister said that the Vienna meeting had resulted in an agreement that the UN Security Council would freeze all its activities regarding the Iranian problem if Iran suspended uranium enrichment in compliance with decisions of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog.
"But a draft resolution [on Iran] remains on the table. If Iran refuses, the project co-authors will have a full right to resume discussing it in the UN Security Council," he said.
But he said no sanctions were mentioned in the draft resolution.
Iran announced earlier this year it had succeeded in enriching uranium to the degree necessary for use in nuclear reactors. It has said it has no plans to enrich uranium to weapons grade, and that it is enriching uranium for use in nuclear power plants to generate electricity, which it has the right to do so under international treaties.
