By KUNA,
Gaza : Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday evening that “Russia is committed to preventing the nuclearization of Iran for military purposes,” reports reaching here from Israel said.
“Russia will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear technologies especially for military purposes,” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot quoted Lavrov as saying during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, now on a visit to Moscow.
As for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier being kidnapped in Gaza Strip, Lavrov said Moscow was working to secure the release of soldier.
Moscow will not engage in any ties with the Palestinian Hamas movement so long as the latter failed to meet the conditions set by the International Quartet relating to the Middle East peace process, he added.
The Quartet (consisting of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia) requests that Hamas should recognize Israel and the previously-signed Palestinian-Israeli documents and stop using armed struggle to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict before engaging in contacts with the movement.
Olmert arrived in Moscow earlier Monday for an official visit aiming to prevent Russia from supplying Iran and Syria with sophisticated weapons.