US, Russia rule out imminent sanctions on Iran

The US and Russia today ruled out imminent sanctions on Iran in view of its suspected nuclear weapons programme, even as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated pushing for additional punitive measures if there was no "significant progress" on the diplomacy track.

The US and Russia today ruled out imminent sanctions on Iran in view of its suspected nuclear weapons programme, even as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated pushing for additional punitive measures if there was no "significant progress" on the diplomacy track.

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Clinton, on her maiden trip here as chief US diplomat, held extensive parleys on the whole range of bilateral issues with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who said the two sides made "substantial movement forward" on talks to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

Addressing a joint news conference here, the US Secretary of State upheld Tehran's right for civilian nuclear energy.

"Iran has the right to have civilian nuclear energy, but not nuclear weapons," she said via a Russian interpreter.

She said neither Russia nor US is seeking to impose sanctions against Iran under the current circumstances when the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany were holding dialogue with Tehran and that sanctions would be premature. Russia was being "extremely cooperative in the work we have done together" on the issue, she said.

However, Clinton also said that in the absence of "significant progress" in the "engagement track" with Iran, "we will be seeking to rally international opinion behind additional sanctions."

Lavrov said that threats of new sanctions under current circumstances will be "counterproductive."