Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday Moscow has yet to decide on whether Iran should be considered a threat, saying it would be guided by UN nuclear experts on the issue. He was responding to remarks from his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, that Russia and China ‘‘had officially told us.(of) their opposition to sanctions and military attacks’’ against Tehran.‘‘We have made no such announcements. In such an important and serious area like nuclear non-proliferation, we can make a decision only based on the opinions of experts,’’ Lavrov told reporters.‘‘The inspections that have been held in Iran do not allow us to conclude that Iran has the technology to create weapons of mass destruction. But on the other hand, these inspections do not allow us to make the opposite conclusion.’’He spoke a day after discussion started between the permanent five members of the UN Security Council over a resolution demanding Iran curb its nuclear ambitions or face ‘‘further measures.’’ Britain, France and Germany, which are sponsoring the Council resolution, want it adopted by Monday and were due to meet again on Friday to push the case forward.Meanwhile, speaking at a conference in the Azeri capital Baku, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again declared Iran’s commitment to its uranium enrichment programme: ‘‘We are set on continuing our path to industrial production of nuclear fuel for our nuclear power stations in line with international regulations and under IAEA supervision.’’In another development, the Iranian embassy in Moscow said Russia’s proposal to enrich uranium for Iran on Russian territory remains on the negotiating table.Tehran supports any approach that ‘‘takes into consideration its right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, including the right to enrich uranium,’’ the embassy said in a statement dated Wednesday but made available to the media today.
