MOSCOW. June 2 (Interfax) - Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday reiterated Russia's position that talks are the only acceptable way of dealing with the Iranian nuclear program issue and that Iran, as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), has a right to have a civil nuclear industry.
Russia is willing to help dispel global concerns over Tehran's nuclear program through talks "with the understanding that Iran, as an NPT participant, enjoys an inseparable right to develop a civil nuclear program under the control of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog]," a Russian Foreign Ministry statement cited Lavrov as saying during talks in Moscow with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon.
Earlier, Yaalon told reporters in Moscow that political and economic pressure is not enough to make Tehran abandon its alleged program of developing nuclear weapons and that it should be made clear to Iran that it would be in for a military attack if it went ahead with the supposed program.