Russia resisting sanctions against Iran

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By Matthew Lee ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia pushed back Tuesday at U.S. efforts to threaten tough new sanctions if Iran fails to prove its nuclear program is peaceful, a setback to the Obama administration's desire to present a united front with Moscow.

After meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow believed that such threats would not persuade Iran to comply and that negotiations should continue to be pursued.

"At the current stage, all forces should be thrown at supporting the negotiating process," he told reporters at a joint news conference with Clinton. "Threats, sanctions and threats of pressure in the current situation, we are convinced, would be counterproductive."

Clinton, on her first visit to Moscow as secretary of state, had been looking to gauge Russia's willingness to join the U.S. in applying additional pressure on Iran to come clean about its nuclear intentions.

Russia, along with China, has traditionally balked at sanctions but there had been indications that that opposition might be softening after Tehran last month disclosed a previously secret uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said then that while sanctions are rarely productive "in some cases they are inevitable." Lavrov stressed on Tuesday that Medvedev meant only that sanctions would be considered when all political and diplomatic efforts are exhausted.

Clinton, who met later with Medvedev, said she had not asked for Moscow's specific support for actually imposing sanctions. But U.S. officials said they were disappointed that Lavrov had come out against even the threat of new penalties.

One senior official traveling with Clinton said the U.S. continued to believe it is critical to get tangible signs of support from Moscow for at least considering new sanctions because the more united they are, the more likely pressure on Iran is to work. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking.

Clinton agreed with Lavrov that the U.S. believed it was important to pursue diplomacy in the carrot-and-stick approach the international community is taking with Iran. But, she also said it was critical to let Iran know what will happen should it continue to rebuff the demands.