Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated that imposing sanctions against Iran “leads to dead-end, as Tehran will never give in to pressure.”

Russia and the United States are facing a "growing concern about developments around Iran's nuclear program in terms of lack of confidence and inability to resolve issues which have long featured in this dossier," ITAR-TASS quoted Ryabkov as saying.

Moscow called on Iran and IAEA to “work together for settlement of all issues. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty would suffer a huge blow allowing Iran is implementing military nuclear program but so far we, at least the Russian side, have no evidence of it”.

“Washington believes non-stop, reckless increase of pressure on Iran will help resolve the Iranian nuclear problems and ultimately convince Iran to go for concessions. We believe imposing sanctions against Iran leads to dead-end as Tehran will never give in to pressure. Sanctions are fraught with destabilization of the situation which is extremely risky. We must make every effort to reach an agreement. This is why Russia objects the sanctions and insists on continuation of talks, herself coming up with proposals. This is the big difference between us and the U.S. The same is true for us and Germany and the EU overall,” Ryabkov concluded.