Lavrov: lifting sanctions against Iran could benefit Russian economy

The full lifting of the sanctions imposed against Iran over its controversial nuclear activities would be in line with Russia's national interests and would benefit the Russian economy, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Argumenty i Fakty Russian weekly.

"The region of the Middle East and North Africa is now living through a period of serious turbulence stemming from the intensification of extremism and terrorism, growing inter-ethnic and inter-religious contradictions. Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya are engulfed in upheavals, the situation in many other countries is unstable too," he said.

According to the Russian minister, further degradation of the situation in the region "might have a serious adverse effect on international stability, infringe upon the interests of many countries, including Russia, with its southern regions located in exact proximity" to that region.

"Russia has been taking consistent steps to reach political settlements to conflict situations and find solutions to the numerous problems of the region. It has been contributing to the success of corresponding international efforts," Lavrov stressed. 

"Russian diplomacy made a significant contribution to the achievement of the Lausanne framework agreement on the settlement of issues related to the Iranian nuclear program," he said. 

"We believe that further progress in this direction and the swift lifting of sanctions against Iran – restrictions imposed by the UN Security Council, as well as all unilateral restrictions – fully meet our national interests," TASS cited him as saying.

"We are confident that de-escalation of tension around Iran will be good for bilateral trade-and-economic ties and, correspondingly, will be beneficial for Russia," Lavrov noted.

"Stabilization in the vast region of the Middle East and North Africa will bring the countries of that region back to normal life, will remove obstacles in the way of resuming full-scale foreign economic exchanges, which is in the interests of expanding our mutually beneficial trade-and-economic cooperation with them and bigger presence of Russian companies on those promising markets," he believes.

"In general, we are principled opponents of the use of methods of pressure in international relations, of restricting the lawful rights of states in selfish, lucrative interests," he stressed. "It is a short-sighted policy, which, as a rule, has a boomerang effect on its authors."

"In the current conditions, energy producers and consumers should pool efforts to flatten out excessive volatility of prices and ensure normal functioning of markets," he added.

The Russian foreign minister drew special attention to the fact that "there are no UN Security Council bans on exports of Iranian oil and gas."