Russia would oppose any effort to use the UN Security Council to promote a change of regime in Iran, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said in an interview. "We cannot support and will actively oppose any attempt to use the Security Council to punish Iran or to use Iran's nuclear program in order to promote the idea of regime change" in Tehran, Lavrov said an interview with the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA, released by the Russian foreign ministry on Saturday.
Lavrov added that Moscow regarded the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation as an "extremely serious" problem and called on Tehran to respect international demands aimed at ensuring that its nuclear program posed no threat in this regard.
"We believe that the Iranian side must finally bow to the constructive proposals that have been made and fully cooperate with the IAEA to answer all currently outstanding questions" about its nuclear ambitions, Lavrov said.
Lavrov said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog agency, at present had no way of telling whether or not there was a military component to Iran's fledgling nuclear program.
