IAEA vote on Iran not UNSC referral: Putin

Moscow intends to explain the substance of the balanced decision to its Iranian friends.

The IAEA's decision on Iran's nuclear issue is not a vote for referring the issue to the UN Security Council, Moscow intends to explain the "substance of the balanced decision" to its Iranian friends, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said.

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"The dossier has not been referred. We are talking about informing the Security Council about the joint work on the 'Iranian dossier'. But this is not transfer of dossier to the Security Council. This is a substantial difference. And all this, in my view, permits us to further search for the ways to resolve this issue," Putin said in an interview to Spanish media ahead of his Spain visit.

"We will explain the substance of the balanced decisions of IAEA to our Iranian friends," Putin said in his interview.

Putin said that Moscow was closely working on the Iran nuclear issue in full cooperation with the European Troika of Britain, France and Germany as well as with the "American colleagues".