WarSclerotic

Iran has expressed readiness to stop uranium enrichment to a fissile concentration of 20 percent in exchange for the easing of sanctions imposed by the P5+1 countries on the Islamic Republic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Tuesday.

“The international community should react to Iran’s constructive steps by similar measures [such as the] gradual halt of sanctions and scrapping them, including the curbs of unilateral basis or those approved by the Security Council,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov added that in light of Iran’s willingness to cooperate with the West, sanctions should not be tightened, but eased.

He urged both Iran and the six world powers (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) to show flexibility in nuclear talks in order to move forward.

On Sunday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran was making “steady progress” in expending its nuclear program despite international sanctions, that do not seem to be slowing it down.

“There is a steady increase of capacity and production” in Iran’s nuclear program, Yukiya Amano said in an interview with Reuters.

He spoke shortly after Iranian President-elect Hassan Rohani pledged, during a news conference in Tehran, to be more transparent about Iran’s nuclear program in order to see sanctions lifted.

But Rohani also said Tehran was not ready to suspend its enrichment of uranium, which the West fears is aimed at producing a nuclear weapons capability – something Iran denies.