Russian President, Dmitri A. Medvedev has stated that, Russia might stand with the United Nations and the western governments in imposing sanction on the Islamic Republic of Iran, if the current nuclear deal negotiations are failed. The nuclear deal proposed by the international community to Iran is aimed at reducing the amount of enriched uranium that it currently holds. A non-negotiable condition of the deal is that, Iran ships its stockpile of low enriched uranium to Russia for processing. The countries involved in the negotiations fear that the huge amounts of low enriched uranium that Iran possess can be turned into weapons grade component and will be used by the Islamist nation for creating nuclear weapons.

According to President Medvedev,

“If agreements are reached on the programs linked to uranium enrichment and its use for peaceful purposes in Iran, we will with pleasure take part in these programs. If the Iranian leadership takes a less constructive position, then anything is possible, in theory. We would not want this to end in imposing sanctions under international law, because sanctions, as a rule, are a complex and dangerous path. But if there is no forward movement, no one can rule out this scenario.”

In the past Russia has more or less always taken a stand with Iran as it considers Iran as a vital ally and Moscow has opposed the notion of imposing sanctions on Tehran numerous times. However, since the personal meeting between the Presidents of the United States and Russia in September this year, Mr. Medvedev has been watching the events more closely and recently during as statement, he did signal a shift in Russia’s policy on Iran.

Initially, Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had supported the nuclear deal, but with increasing pressures and criticism from the government’s critics, Tehran has once again started top stall the negotiations stating that, some of the clauses are unacceptable and it would like to suggest some alternatives to those vital clauses.

Via New York Times.