Russia believes in the professionalism of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors and is to back the new IAEA report on Iran's nuclear program, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Thursday.

"We are going to support the main conclusion contained in the new IAEA report which stresses the need to continue working within the IAEA framework," Lavrov said, commenting on the upcoming discussion of a regular IAEA report on Iran's nuclear program to be held in Vienna on Thursday.

Lavrov said that though there have been reports that the United States has intelligence data on Iran's nuclear program and possible aspects of its use, this information has not yet become a subject of discussion.

"We will certainly give a serious consideration to this information if it is presented alongside with real evidence," the minister said.

Lavrov emphasized that Russia didn't rule out the possibility of referring the Iranian dossier to the UN Security Council, but "there are no grounds for it now."

Touching upon the actual proposal by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana that Russia should act as a broker in this process, Lavrov said Russia "would not do anything for anybody."

"Russia has its own dialogue with Iran designed to ensure satisfactory solution of the previously arisen problems," the Russian minister said. "Our chief criterion is to ensure the regime of nonproliferation of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). We haven't seen any threat to the nonproliferation regime in Iran's actions so far."

He noted the IAEA inspectors should clear further all the existing doubts in this process.

"The trio of European nations and the United States are conducting a dialogue with Iran alongside with Russia. We hold regular consultations and verify our assessments," Lavrov explained.

The minister said he knew the European trio suggested Iran resume consultations on December 6, and the Iranian leadership has responded positively to this initiative. "I consider this approach to be reasonable," Lavrov said.

Source: Xinhua