Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov challenges US claims against Iran’s nuclear activities, stressing there is “no proof” that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov challenges US claims against Iran's nuclear activities, stressing there is “no proof” that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program.

“We don't have any proof that Iran has taken a political decision to produce a bomb,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Bloomberg news agency on Thursday.

“And whatever information the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has does not support the conclusion that Iran already is making a bomb,” he further explained.

“IAEA has access to all sites which Iran legally must show to the inspectors,” the top Russian diplomat emphasized.

Lavrov called on the Islamic Republic to implement the additional protocol to the safeguards agreement with the IAEA which is ordinarily a voluntary measure.

“Apart from its rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has quite important obligations, obligations related to the need to ensure exclusively peaceful nature of nuclear program, and there are some questions and the international community wants to clarify,” he stated.

He also stressed the importance of implementing the IAEA and the UN Security Council resolutions “which are aimed exactly at this … Iran must see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Lavrov criticized the international community and particularly the US for imposing new unilateral sanctions on Iran, saying, “It's not a very decent approach to negotiating a collective position. It would in fact be aimed at suffocating the Iranian economy.”

The Russian foreign minister reiterated that sanctions and threats against Iran would yield no fruits and urged the P5+1 -- Russia, China, France, Britain, the US plus Germany -- not to forget about the need to “come back to the negotiating table.”