Russia urges not to put new demands on Iran

Russia has urged the six world powers involved in Iranian nuclear talks to not submit new demands to Teheran.

"We call on our partners to refrain from tabling new demands which are able to undermine the trust already reached and to throw the situation back to the starting point," Xinhua quoted Mikhail Ulyanov, head of the foreign ministry's security and disarmament department, as saying Friday.

The diplomat urged all sides involved in the talks between the P5+1 group of mediators (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US) and Iran to strictly adhere to an interim deal clinched in Geneva Nov 24, 2013.

He admitted that there was a lot of work ahead to coordinate numerous parametres over the Iranian nuclear programme and to reconciliate sometimes opposite interests and approaches.

According to the diplomat, the P5+1 group may resume negotiations with Iran Feb 18 in New York, though a final decision is yet to be made.

"All parties show a desire to continue the talks," Ulyanov said.

On Jan 20, the P5+1 group and Iran started the implementation of the first step of the Geneva interim deal.

As part of the deal, valid for six months and can be renewed, Iran suspended 20 percent uranium enrichment as of Jan 20. The country also started the process of diluting and oxidizing its 196-kg stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium.