Tehran: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said on a trip to Iran that unilateral sanctions -- such as those recently imposed by the United States -- will not help solve the Iranian nuclear problem.

Lavrov's remark came yesterday as the Russian, on a surprise visit to Tehran, met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for talks on the Iranian nuclear programme. Earlier in the day, Ahmadinejad shrugged off a new round of US sanctions targeting Iran, saying the country would not succumb to pressure from Washington, Iranian media reported.

Iranian state television released no details on the Lavrov-Ahmadinejad talks, but Russian news reports said Lavrov warned that unilateral sanctions could undermine a collective effort by the international community to get Iran to halt its controversial uranium enrichment.

"Unilateral actions taken now regarding trade and economic sanctions against Iran won't help to continue collective efforts," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies, in an apparent reference to the US sanctions against Iran announced last week.

For his part, Ahmadinejad ridiculed the US sanctions as hollow, and said the move showed the "Americans are not able to harm us." The remarks were the Iranian leader s first reaction to Washington s move. "Americans think that they can force the Iranian nation to give in by resorting to unilateral economic sanctions," Ahmadinejad told a group of students, according to the official news agency, IRNA.

Lavrov earlier yesterday met his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki and discussed bilateral relations, IRNA also reported.

Source : PTI