Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov meets Ahmadinejad

Описание: (30 Oct 2007)
1. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov walking into meeting room and shaking hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
2. Close-up of Lavrov
3. Close-up of Ahmadinejad
4. Mid of Ahmadinejad and Lavrov seated in meeting room
5. Mid of Russian delegation
6. Mid of Iranian delegation, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (left) seated
7. Pan right from Lavrov to Ahmadinejad
8. Wide of meeting
STORYLINE:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received late on Tuesday visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for talks on the Iranian nuclear program, the state television reported.
The Iranian TV report released no details on the talks, but Russian news reports said Lavrov insisted that unilateral sanctions won't help solve the Iranian nuclear problem.
"Unilateral actions taken now regarding trade and economic sanctions against Iran won't help to continue collective efforts," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies in an apparent reference to the US sanctions against Iran announced last week.
Earlier on Tuesday, Lavrov met his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki and discussed bilateral relations, the official IRNA news agency here reported.
Lavrov's surprise visit to Tehran was his second in two weeks, an unprecedented move by a Russian official.
Earlier in October, Lavrov accompanied Russian President Vladimir Putin on a one day visit here.
At the time, Putin was said to have put forth a proposal to resolve Tehran's standoff with the West over its controversial nuclear program but the details of that proposal were not revealed.
Later Ahmadinejad disputed the report and said Putin had not spoken about the nuclear issue.
Russia is building Iran's first nuclear power plant in southern Iranian port of Bushehr.
The United Nations has twice imposed limited sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Russia has resisted a third round of UN sanctions but has said Tehran must suspend the process, which can be used to produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or a nuclear warhead.
The United States and its allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to build a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies, saying its program aims only to generate electricity.
Putin has said he sees no evidence Iran is building a weapon but has said Iran should not be allowed to do so.
Russia and the other permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, have been working together to try to find a way to get Iran to abandon enrichment.
The group has offered a package of economic and political rewards to Iran if it agrees to suspend enrichment.
Iran rejected that proposal.

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