MOSCOW, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The option of sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear issue has been exhausted, and the problem could only be solved through talks, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday.
"Moscow believes the road of sanctions against Iran was dead-ended. To threaten with sanctions and airstrikes can only delay the solution by negotiation," Lavrov was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying.
The minister, who made a stopover in Russia's Far East during a returning trip from Hawaii to Moscow, said that isolation or confrontation has no chance of success with regard to Iran.
However, he did not rule out the possibility that some countries could attempt to impose unilateral sanctions against Tehran.
The diplomat also slashed the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying it was considered by Moscow as a means to stir up public sentiments and prepare the ground for new unilateral sanctions.
He reminded that Tehran has agreed to negotiate all the issues and it should be invited to the negotiating table.
In its latest report on Iran's nuclear program released last week, the IAEA believed that Iran had carried out "organized and systematical" activities aimed at nuclear weapons at least until the end of 2003.
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