German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin on Tuesday after a nearly two-hour meeting with his counterparts from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, that the new draft of a sanctions resolution would be presented to the U.N. Security Council in the coming weeks.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the new draft resolution was not tough or punitive and "welcomes the progress made between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) ..."
"The measures in this draft do not have a tough sanctioning character," Lavrov said.
He said the new draft resolution would "call on countries to be alert in their transport relations with Iran so that those relations are not used to transport (potentially dangerous) materials".
His remarks suggested the United States failed to win agreement in Berlin on punitive economic sanctions against Iran.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tehran had exceeded its international obligations on its nuclear dossier.
"Iran has gone beyond its obligations," Saeed Jalili told a committee of the European Parliament during a visit to Brussels. He was expected to meet European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana in the Belgian capital later on Wednesday.
"Everyone acknowledges those activities are peaceful," Jalili, referring to Iran's nuclear activities. He reiterated Tehran's belief that Iran had a right to enrich uranium.
IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei won agreement from Iran this month to answer remaining questions about its past covert nuclear work within four weeks.
Western diplomats say expectations are low that leaders in Tehran will be forthcoming, but Iran says it has accelerated its cooperation with the IAEA since then. Ahmadinejad said Iran had "good" cooperation with the agency.
On Wednesday, diplomats familiar with IAEA-Iran relations told Reuters Iran has allowed top U.N. nuclear monitors to visit an advanced centrifuge development site for the first time in a gesture of transparency about its disputed atomic drive.
