Source: Iran Daily
29 October 2008
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday slammed as “shortsighted“ US sanctions on Russia’s main arms firm over the alleged sale of sensitive military technologies to Iran.
Rosoboronexport was one of 13 firms place on a US State Department’s black list last week under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Non-Proliferation Act, AFP reported.
“It is unfair competition, simply an attempt to cut off suppliers,“ Medvedev was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
“We consider such sanctions as short-sighted,“ he added. Medvedev said, however, that Russia will “practically not feel“ the sanctions, which ban any US government body from doing business with the Russian company and have also targeted firms from China, Syria and Venezuela.
The United States says the sanctions are meant to punish the firms for sales that have “potential to make a material contribution to the development of weapons of mass destruction or cruise or ballistic missile systems.“
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday described the US move as “inadmissible“ and warned the sanctions would affect talks between world powers on Iran’s controversial nuclear program.
The minister added that the US cannot change Moscow’s approach to Iran by imposing sanctions on Russian companies.
“These new sanctions were introduced without any international legal foundation whatsoever,“ Reuters quoted Sergei Lavrov as saying.
“Russia will of course take this into account in practical affairs and relations with the United States such as in trade and economic and other spheres,“ Russia’s top diplomat stated.
The US measures would not make Russia change its policies on Iran, Lavrov said.
“All our trade and all of our military-technical cooperation with Iran are carried out in strict accordance with current international legal norms,“ the minister added.
“There can be no other explanation here than the rather arrogant extraterritorial implementation of American laws,“ Lavrov concluded.
Filed under: Iran Daily, Nuclear program, Russia, Security and Intelligence , Dmitry Medvedev, sanctions, Sergei Lavrov
