TRIESTE, June 26 (RIA Novosti) - Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrial countries meeting in Italy on Friday expressed concern about Iran's nuclear program and stressed the need to continue dialogue.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Trieste at a news conference that the global community needs to reach "a peaceful settlement" on Iran's nuclear ambitions since Tehran will most likely not change its mind on developing nuclear energy.
"A peaceful settlement on Iran's nuclear issue needs to be reached," Lavrov said. "I don't think that the Iranian leadership will make any changes in its position and we need to be ready to have patience."
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said there were a number of short- and long-term issues in regard to the Iranian nuclear program, and very little time remained to solve them.
"We want the doors to remain open for Iran, but dialogue should not exist just for the purpose of dialogue," Frattini said.
Frattini said the world community needed to understand how Iran would respond to the G8's outstretched hand "in the next few months," because the issue will be brought up at the UN General Assembly in September.
Lavrov and Frattini also expressed concern over violence in Iran after the June 12 presidential elections.
"We, of course, have expressed serious concern over the use of force and the deaths of civilians, but we will not interfere in Iran's internal affairs and believe that all of the issues that have surfaced in regard to the elections will be solved in accordance with democratic procedures," the Russian foreign minister said.
"We are very worried by these events," Italy's top diplomat said. "We have underlined the need that violence cease immediately."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide victory on June 12 sparked mass protests amid opposition allegations of ballot fraud. At least 13 people are reported to have been killed according to Iranian media and over 450 arrested in the largest challenge to the Islamic Revolution since the 1979 overthrow of the U.S.-backed shah.
