Russia is again urging Iran to stop uranium enrichment to end the international standoff over its nuclear program. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the world wants to see urgent and concrete steps from Iran. He spoke on the sidelines of a meeting of envoys from the Group of Eight major industrialized nations today (Wednesday) in Moscow.
On Tuesday, top officials from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany met on Iran, but failed to agree on whether to push for sanctions. Russia and China still oppose sanctions, preferring instead for the International Atomic Energy Agency to handle the issue.
The series of meetings come a week before the full U.N. Security Council is to hear an I.A.E.A. report on Iran.