Russia’s Lavrov Calls Truss Uncompromising, Mocks Her Macron Comment

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
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Russia’s Lavrov Calls Truss Uncompromising, Mocks Her Macron Comment

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday criticized Britain's new Prime Minister Liz Truss for not being willing to compromise and mocked her for saying she did not know if the French president was a friend or an enemy.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Lavrov said Truss' approach would not help Britain on the international stage.

Lavrov said Truss tried to "defend Britain's interests without taking into account the positions of others in any way and without any attempt to compromise."

He added: "I do not think that this will help Britain to maintain or strengthen its position in the international arena, which has clearly been shaken after it left the European Union."

Lavrov also taunted the incoming British leader over recent tension with French President Emmanuel Macron, a key NATO ally for Britain. During a campaign event last month, Truss said the "jury is out" on whether Macron was a friend or foe.

"For Liz Truss ... it should be more of a priority to deal with her closest neighbors, including finally deciding whether President Macron is her friend or enemy. This question is still hanging in the air," Lavrov said.

Russian politicians and media have greeted Truss' victory in the contest to replace Boris Johnson with scorn, lambasting what they see as her anti-Russian position.

Lavrov said Britain had in recent years taken to trying to "compensate" for Brexit by taking "drastic steps on the world stage" and was acting "aggressively over the situation in Ukraine."

Britain has been one of the most vocal backers of Kyiv and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy since Russia invaded in late February.

Truss, Britain's foreign minister who is replacing Johnson as prime minister from Tuesday, has said she will not abandon London's support, which has included significant military and financial aid.



Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
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Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)

Iran is "pressing the gas pedal" on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday, adding that Iran's recently announced acceleration in enrichment was starting to take effect.

Grossi said last month that Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would "dramatically" accelerate enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% of weapons grade.

Western powers called the step a serious escalation and said there was no civil justification for enriching to that level and that no other country had done so without producing nuclear weapons. Iran has said its program is entirely peaceful and it has the right to enrich uranium to any level it wants.

"Before it was (producing) more or less seven kilograms (of uranium enriched to up to 60%) per month, now it's above 30 or more than that. So I think this is a clear indication of an acceleration. They are pressing the gas pedal," Grossi told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

According to an International Atomic Energy Agency yardstick, about 42 kg of uranium enriched to that level is enough in principle, if enriched further, for one nuclear bomb. Grossi said Iran currently had about 200 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60%.

Still, he said it would take time to install and bring online the extra centrifuges - machines that enrich uranium - but that the acceleration was starting to happen.

"We are going to start seeing steady increases from now," he said.

Grossi has called for diplomacy between Iran and the administration of new US President Donald Trump, who in his first term, pulled the United States out of a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that had imposed strict limits on Iran's atomic activities. That deal has since unraveled.

"One can gather from the first statements from President Trump and some others in the new administration that there is a disposition, so to speak, to have a conversation and perhaps move into some form of an agreement," he said.

Separately, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at Davos that Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the United States by making it clear it does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.