Sergey Lavrov Quotations

must be aimed at making this happen, not making any threat which at this particular stage is not appropriate.

On a number of occasions, the documents shown to us were forged, in particular, they contained fake signatures of Russian officials,

There is no collectively discussed and agreed strategy of what we all will be doing in the Security Council if the issue is there.

We need a new beginning and not an old ending,

We have to wait until three presidents discuss the final text which is on the table, and as far as I am concerned I cannot vote tonight (Wednesday) until I hear from my president,

We got the memorandum, which everybody supports. ... That would be the best resolution, if any resolution is necessary, because the memorandum itself is part of international law.

We do not agree that this matter should be sent to the Security Council,

We often hear from some countries that Russia is becoming strong and unpredictable. But this is not the case. In the 1990s, when the Commonwealth of Independent states was disintegrating and there were fears of Russia breaking up too, some people in the West said they wanted a strong and united Russia. Now we are here. They should be grateful.

We are awaiting final confirmation from the American side,

Documents that were shown to us were forged on a number of occasions,

What is most important for us in this situation is not our bilateral relations, our investments in the Iranian economy or our economic profit from cooperation with Iran. The highest priority for us in this situation is the prevention of the violation of the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

We think that the current situation permits us to develop this issue and do everything possible within the means of this organization, without referring this issue to other organizations now.

As for relations between the European trio and Russia, we are not expecting any change in these relations. There is no need for that,

We think there is no need at all for a resolution authorizing the end of inspections and basically leaving it to anyone to start using military means,

adequate measures, including military ones, to ensure Russia's safety.

In our view, any solution should take into account the desirability, very high desirability, to continue to investigate into the past program of Iran so that all the questions which the international community has could be answered by the experts.

I fully support the call for the resumption of talks, but in reality it can be done only on condition of continuing the enrichment moratorium, which is mutually acceptable.

I hope this is a change not only on this, but on other issues as well,

Iran has removed the seals from a uranium enrichment plant and therefore urgent consultations are needed.

Honestly speaking, we have modest expectations, but we will make every effort to avoid an escalation of the situation and the use of force.

Generally and in principle when confidence in the Iranian nuclear program is re-established ... we could come back to the possible implementation of the right that Iran has to develop a nuclear energy sector full scale.

The British draft is not that clear and it is basically suggesting a procedure which would lead to deterioration of the situation further, and we cannot agree with something that would not be realistic.

This move is detrimental, and not one real problem can be decided with such a move.

This leaves the thorny and controversial issue of ongoing monitoring for a later stage,

How many people must be killed. How many countries must be destabilized to punish that one person?

If it [a country] looks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it fights like a terrorist, it's a terrorist, right?

It's time to realize that one cannot combat one injustice by invoking and using another injustice

Russia doesn't want any arms race. Russia would not engage in the arms race. We have enough technological means to provide not very expensive answer to the efforts to build missile defense.

It's our job to do everything possible to keep the international community's focus on MH17. That's our obligation to the victims and their loved ones.

The West appears to have decided for the Ukrainian people what their choice is. The EU does not condemn violent actions in Ukraine which are punishable in the West.

We have certain differences over the ways to pursue our goals, but our final aims coincide, in my opinion.