MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax-AVN) - Chances for a peaceful settlement of the Iraq crisis have increased over the past few days, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov has told Television of Egypt.
The interview was made available on the Russian foreign ministry's webiste on Thursday.
"The events of the past few days show that chances for a political settlement are increasing," the deputy minister said.
"The threat of a war beginning in the near future has been lessened," he remarked. "The authors of the draft resolution presented to the UN Security Council have decided not to put the issue to vote on March 11. They have said that some changes may be made to the draft resolution."
"Naturally, we will be ready to consider new proposals, but Russia's stance will not change. We do not think it necessary to adopt a new UN Security Council resolution," Fedotov said.
"As for the attempts to present ultimatum draft resolutions that would automatically open the door to war, Russia will adamantly oppose them," Fedotov said.
However, Russia may agree to adopt a new UN Security Council resolution on Iraq under certain conditions, the deputy minister remarked.
"Theoretically, such variants do exist, but they are not part of plans to adopt a resolution that would give the green light to beginning a war in Iraq," Fedotov said.
If head international inspector in Iraq Hans Blix presents his program of work to the UN Security Council outlining key disarmament tasks in Iraq, the Council will have to approve the document, Fedotov said. "That is, some sort of resolution may be required at a certain time," he noted.