MOSCOW. Aug 16 (Interfax) - The unilateral U.S. anti-Iranian sanctions are irresponsible actions which may disrupt the balance reached within the framework of the Iran nuclear deal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Unilateral sanctions are illegitimate in principle. And when those sanctions are used to turn in one's own favor a very precise balance on a certain problem, and that's the kind of balance that was achieved on the Iranian nuclear program, then these, I believe, are irresponsible actions that may upset and undermine this balance," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow.
"One shouldn't present such provocations, since this concerns not just one's national interest, not the national interest of any individual country but the interests of a massive region where we are interested in securing non-nuclear status," he said.
Lavrov went on to recall that countries had repeatedly tried to agree that every time the UN Security Council approves a package of economic enforcement actions with regard to any country, whether it is North Korea, Iran or another country, "everyone should undertake to be limited in their actions by the collectively agreed package of sanctions".
"And undertake not to come up with unilateral restrictions resorting to unilateral actions in order to compensate what was not included in the package that was adopted collectively," Lavrov explained.
"The U.S. is vehemently opposed [to this] but it is very hard to reject this principle. It will remain relevant. And we will surely defend this [principle] in all further discussions," Lavrov went on.
Relevant statements were made during consultations at the UN Security Council, he added. "This is our principled position, which is shared by many of ours partners," Lavrov said.