No reasons whatsoever to suspect Russia of any violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 following use of Iranian airfield - Lavrov
MOSCOW. Aug 17 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied the allegations that by using an Iranian airfield to carry out airstrikes on terrorists in Syria, Russia has violated the UN Security Council resolution on Iran.
"There are no reasons whatsoever to suspect Russia of violating UN Security Council Resolution 2231," Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday.
"According to this resolution, every shipment, sale or delivery to Iran of certain types of weapons, including warplanes, must be approved by the UN Security Council. In the case that we are discussing now, no shipments or sales or deliveries of any warplanes to Iran have taken place and these warplanes, with Iran's consent, are being used by the Russian Aerospace Forces in the antiterrorist operation in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, at the request of the legitimate Syrian leadership, with which, also at their request, the Islamic Republic of Iran also interacts," Lavrov said.
"There is nothing here to discuss at all and if someone would like to look for 'fleas' in what is going on with respect to remaining restrictions imposed on trade and other exchange with Iran, but then we will also have to look into how the enormous amount of cash from the United States could reach Iran and why bank transmissions were made from the U.S. to Iran in dollars, which is absolutely prohibited by the U.S. law," he said.
"I think it only distracts us from the principal task. And the principal task is to forge, at last, coordination in the settlement of the Syrian crisis," Lavrov said.
