Russia's Medvedev leaves door open to Iran sanctions

BERLIN (Reuters) - Sanctions against Iran should not be ruled out if it fails to agree to restrictions on its nuclear programme, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told German weekly magazine Der Spiegel in an interview.

Russia's ties with Iran, which include oil and arms, give it rare influence with the Islamic Republic, making the Kremlin a major player in international efforts to force Tehran to be more transparent in its nuclear plans and to stop enriching uranium.

"If an agreement is reached on programmes for the enrichment of uranium and its use in Iran for peaceful means, then we will gladly participate in these programmes," Medvedev said in an advance copy of the interview released on Saturday.

"If the Iranian leadership takes a less constructive position, then anything is possible in theory," he said, adding he had discussed the issue with U.S. President Barack Obama.

"We wouldn't want this to end with international sanctions because sanctions, as a rule, take us in a very complex and dangerous direction. But if there is no movement forward, nobody is ruling out such a scenario."

The Obama administration is trying to enlist Russian influence to force Iran to negotiate with world powers about its nuclear programme, which many Western nations and Israel believe is aimed at creating nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it wants to develop nuclear technology only for the peaceful generation of electricity.

Russia, a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, has repeatedly urged restraint and only supported previous sanctions against Iran after insisting on amendments softening the measures.

The Kremlin's top foreign policy aide, Sergei Prikhodko, said on Oct. 28 that sanctions against Iran were unlikely in the near future, though Medvedev himself had said previously they could not be ruled out.

(Writing by Robin Paxton; editing by Andrew Roche)