more:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-04-21T095303Z_01_L21790819_RTRUKOC_0_US-NUCLEAR-IRAN-RUSSIA.xml&rpc=22Russia says no Iran sanctions without proof: report
Fri Apr 21, 2006 4:51am ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia would approve sanctions on Iran only if it saw hard evidence that Tehran's nuclear program was not peaceful, Itar-Tass news agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying on Friday.
The United States and some other major powers believe Iran may be building a nuclear bomb. But they say evidence that Iran is not complying with the United Nations nuclear watchdog is enough on its own to justify sanctions.
Russia -- a U.N. Security Council veto-holder -- has said it is not convinced that sanctions would persuade Iran to abandon uranium enrichment. But Moscow has not before been explicit about what evidence it would need to consider sanctions.
"We will only be able to talk about sanctions after we have concrete facts confirming that Iran is not exclusively involved in peaceful nuclear activities," Tass quoted spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying.