Putin warns against attacks on Iran

[NASSIR]

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer

 

TEHRAN, Iran - Vladimir Putin issued a veiled warning Tuesday against any attack on Iran as he made the first visit by a Kremlin leader to Tehran in six decades — a mission reflecting Russian-Iranian efforts to curb U.S. influence.

 

He also suggested Moscow and Tehran should have a veto on Western plans for new pipelines to carry oil and natural gas from the Caspian Sea, using routes that would bypass Russian soil and break the Kremlin's monopoly on energy deliveries from the region.

 

Putin came to Tehran for a summit of the five nations bordering the Caspian, but his visit was aimed more at strengthening efforts to blunt U.S. economic and military ties in the area. Yet he also refused to set a date for completing Iran's first nuclear reactor, trying to avoid an outright show of support for Iran's defiance over its nuclear program.

 

Putin strongly warned outside powers against use of force in the region, a clear reference to the United States, which many in Iran fear will attack over the West's suspicions that the Iranians are secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made similar comments.

 

"We are saying that no (Caspian) nations should offer their territory to outside powers for aggression or any military action against any of the Caspian states," Putin said.

 

The five national leaders at the summit later signed a declaration that included a similar statement — an apparent reflection of Iranian fears that the United States could use Azerbaijan's territory as a staging ground for military strikes in Iran.

 

Putin has warned against such attacks previously, but reiterating them in Tehran gave them greater resonance — particularly at a summit for a region where Moscow deeply resents U.S. and European attempts at greater influence.

 

The Russian leader also used the occasion to make a nod to Iran's national pride — describing it as a "world power" and referring to the might of the ancient Persian empire.

 

In Iran's confrontation with the West, Russia has tread a fine line, warning against heavy pressure on Iran and protecting it — for now — from a third round of U.N. sanctions, while urging Tehran to heed the Security Council's demand that it halt uranium enrichment.

 

Putin's careful stance on completing the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran suggested the Kremlin is seeking to preserve solid ties with Tehran without angering the West.

 

"Russia is trying to sit in two chairs at the same time," Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, told The Associated Press. A pledge to quickly complete the plant would send a "strong signal to the West that Russia is with Iran," he said.

 

Putin showed he wouldn't be pressed into speeding up completion of the $1 billion contract to build Bushehr.

 

"I only gave promises to my mom when I was a small boy," he snapped when Iranian reporters prodded him to promise a quick launch.

 

At the same time, Putin — on the first trip to Iran by a Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin visited in 1943 for talks with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II — said Moscow wouldn't back down on its obligation to finish the plant.

 

"Russia has clearly stated that it's going to complete this work," Putin said. "We are not renouncing this obligation."

 

Russia has warned that the Bushehr plant would not go on line this fall as originally planned, saying Iran was slow in making payments. Iranian officials have angrily denied being behind in its payments and accuse the Kremlin of caving in to Western pressure.

 

Moscow also has ignored Iranian demands to ship nuclear reactor fuel for the plant, saying it would be delivered only six months before the Bushehr plant begins operation. The launch date has been delayed indefinitely amid the payment dispute.

 

Putin said the two sides were negotiating revisions to the Bushehr contract, and once agreed a decision on fuel can be made.

 

The Caspian leaders offered a degree of support for the Iranian nuclear program, stressing in their joint statement that any country like Iran which has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty has the right to "carry out research and can use nuclear energy for peaceful means without discrimination."

 

Putin underlined his disagreements with Washington on Iran last week, saying he had seen no "objective data" showing Tehran is trying to construct nuclear weapons. Iran says it need enriched uranium to fuel nuclear reactors that will generate electricity.

 

The main issue before the summit was the Caspian Sea itself.

 

Divvying up territory in and around the inland sea — believed to contain the world's third-largest reserves of oil and natural gas — has been a divisive issue among the five nations, and the leaders showed no signs of progress toward resolving the dispute.

 

The Caspian's offshore borders have been in limbo since the 1991 Soviet collapse. The lack of agreement has led to tensions and conflicts over oil deposits, but Putin and Ahmadinejad strongly warned outside powers to stay away from the region.

 

"All issues related to the Caspian should be settled exclusively by littoral nations," Ahmadinejad said.

 

Moscow strongly opposes U.S.- and European-backed efforts to build pipelines to deliver Central Asian and Caspian oil and gas to the West by bypassing Russia, through which all the region's pipelines now flow. Russia has pushed for new pipelines to cross its territory as well.

 

Putin argued that all pipeline projects in the region should require the approval by all five Caspian nations to take effect, a view that would give each capital a veto.

 

"Projects which may inflict a serious damage to the Caspian environment can't be and mustn't be implemented without a preliminary discussion by the Caspian five and making a consensus decision in the interests of our common sea," Putin said.

 

But the idea was barely mentioned in comments by the leaders of the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, which are striving to balance their relations with Russia, the West and Asia.

 

In Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, political analyst Ilgar Mamedov said the veto idea was only "Putin's opinion." Caspian nations "are independent and act in accordance with their own interests," he said.

[NASSIR]

A troubled past can't be waved away

 

 

Simon Tisdall

Wednesday October 17, 2007

The Guardian

 

 

In typical he-man style, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, ignored an alleged assassination plot and went ahead with a visit to Tehran yesterday. Iran says the plot story was black propaganda fabricated by its enemies, which may well be true. Historically speaking, Russians need no outside help doing away with their leaders. They manage perfectly well by themselves.

It is also true though that, over the centuries, Persian-Russian relations have been spattered with the blood of eminent men. During the Napoleonic wars, Iran turned to France, and then Britain, for help in fending off imperial Russia. But it was let down by both and in 1813, the Treaty of Golestan effectively confirmed Russia's seizure of its Caucasus territories. Moscow's problems in Muslim Chechnya and Dagestan date from that period.

 

 

In 1826 the two countries went to war again, with Britain once more refusing to assist Iran. This unequal contest ended two years later with the humiliating Treaty of Turkmenchai. Iran was forced to cede further territory and pay 20m roubles in reparations - a crippling sum. According to Ali Ansari in his recent book, Confronting Iran, Iran's betrayal and domination by the great powers of that time helps to explain its present-day distrust of their successors.

Russian bullying continued into the modern era. In 1945, when the US and Britain agreed to end their wartime occupation of Iran, the Soviet Union refused to withdraw its troops. Joseph Stalin sought instead to partition the country - until US pressure dissuaded him. Even the 1979-81 siege of the US embassy in Tehran, following the Islamic revolution and the shah's overthrow, finds an echo in 19th-century Persian-Russian relations. After the Russian ambassador, Alexander Griboedov, gave sanctuary to the chief eunuch of the shah's harem (a valued spy) and two runaway Georgian concubines, an outraged mob surrounded his embassy. When guards fired on them, the crowd stormed the building. Griboedov and most of his staff were killed and mutilated.

 

Speaking on Iranian television, Iran's current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, assured Mr Putin of a more friendly welcome to Tehran this time around - and diplomatically glossed over this long history of affronts. "Relations between Iran and Russia have been influenced by outside forces at times but today both countries are determined to expand their ties to the highest level," he said.

 

There was "natural unity" between the two, exemplified by their cooperation in building Iran's nuclear plant at Bushehr and their refusal to do the bidding of the western powers, Mr Ahmadinejad added. What was also plain, although not stated, was the Iranian leader's gratification at the visit blowing a large hole in US-led attempts to isolate Tehran.

 

Mr Putin's approach to Iran, underpinned as ever by Russia's greater strength, is more canny. He insisted recently that there was no evidence that Iran was developing an atomic weapon. He has cast himself as a Disraeli-style "honest broker" in the nuclear dispute with the US. He gave another warning yesterday of the unacceptability of military action. And he knows his Tehran sojourn again demonstrates Russia's reviving central role in global affairs.

 

All the same, Mr Putin is hardly falling over himself to help Iran become a nuclear-armed state, if that is what Tehran is trying to do. Completion of the Bushehr project has been repeatedly put back. Nuclear fuel deliveries from Russia have been withheld. Moscow has infuriated Tehran by claiming not to have been paid.

 

In short, Russia is playing both sides off against the middle, using current tensions with the west to advance its own national interest. Mr Putin's pragmatism should not be mistaken for friendship. After all, Russia's power games in Iran are hardly new. Just look at the history.

[NASSIR]

It was/is Kosovo that Russia frustrated the west. Now it is Iran. Good job Mr. Putin.

 

 

Russia rebuffs U.S. antimissile plan

 

Latimes.com

 

MOSCOW -- Top Russian officials on Friday publicly rejected a new proposal personally presented by two senior U.S. Cabinet secretaries aimed at persuading Moscow to withdraw its objections to a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

 

Moscow's rebuff was made in substance and tone, with President Vladimir V. Putin coming close to openly ridiculing the antimissile system and the Russian foreign minister saying the U.S. had failed to make a case that Europe faces a long-range missile threat from Iran.

 

Putin, speaking at the start of a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates at his dacha on the outskirts of Moscow, warned the Bush administration against attempting to assert its influence over Eastern Europe, saying it could irreparably harm U.S.-Russian relations.

 

"We can sometime in the future decide that some antimissile system should be established somewhere on the moon, but before we reach such arrangements, we will lose the opportunity of fixing" other bilateral disagreements, Putin said.

 

Putin's spokesman later said the Russian president had not intended to be confrontational, and U.S. officials briefed on the Putin meeting insisted it was cordial.

 

But the high-level summit appeared rife with diplomatic slights.

 

Putin moved the meeting to his dacha from the Kremlin just hours before it was to be held. It was then formally convened more than 40 minutes after Gates and Rice arrived at the originally appointed time, a delay Putin ascribed to an emergency phone call.

 

Once the meeting began, Putin unexpectedly lectured Gates and Rice for several minutes in the presence of dozens of local and foreign reporters.

 

Despite the visible tensions, U.S. officials said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov had welcomed their proposal, which included an invitation for Moscow to directly participate in parts of the antimissile system's operations. Lavrov also sought further discussions between U.S. and Russian experts on whether the proposal met Moscow's concerns about the antimissile system, which the Pentagon is proposing to build in the former Warsaw Pact countries of Poland and the Czech Republic.

 

"I think it's clear that the Russians are thinking very hard now about what our side brought to the table," said a senior State Department official involved in the talks.

 

Rice sought to portray the unusually high-profile talks between the two defense chiefs and two foreign ministers as constructive, and the first in a series intended to narrow the divide between the countries.

 

Despite Russian demands, however, she flatly asserted that the Bush administration would not freeze its ongoing talks with Poland and the Czech Republic on construction of the missile defense sites. The Pentagon plan would put a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland.

 

Although she acknowledged that Russia had serious objections to the plan, including fears it could be aimed at Russian missiles, Rice said she thought they could be overcome. "We believe we can address those concerns, and we intend to do it," she said.

 

The centerpiece of the new U.S. proposal is a program that would greatly expand the planned American system by linking it directly with current Russian radars and, potentially, Moscow's existing missile defense system, which centers on protecting the country's capital.

 

Although U.S. negotiators declined to give specific details, a senior Pentagon official involved in the talks said the plan included allowing both Russian and U.S. personnel to staff the system's major components to give the Russian military assurance that it could not be converted to shoot down Russian nuclear missiles.

 

Russia has rejected similar data-sharing and joint-headquarters proposals in the past, but U.S. officials insisted that the new plan went beyond what had been previously offered.

 

"We put forward some thoughts about the presence of individuals from both sides at sites so that there was complete transparency, both perhaps at the [European] site but also in the United States, and if there are radars at other facilities here in Russia, that there would be a presence there too," Gates said.

 

Lavrov said Russian officials would examine the proposal, but said it failed to address one of Moscow's primary contentions: that Iran does not present a missile threat to Europe or the U.S., making the program unnecessary.

 

The disagreements over Iranian missile capabilities center on intelligence gathered by the U.S. and presented to Russia over the last four months. The U.S. believes it shows Iran will be able to develop a long-range nuclear missile by 2015, but Moscow disputes those findings. Some critics have accused Russia of caving into Iran because of the countries' economic ties.

 

The U.S and Russian defense chiefs and foreign ministers will meet again in Washington in six months.

 

And while they insisted that progress was made, there was evidence of deterioration in the increasingly frosty bilateral relationship.

 

In his remarks while meeting with Rice and Gates, Putin raised the prospect of Russia's withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Gorbachev-era pact preventingthe U.S. and Russia from deploying short- and medium-range offensive missiles.

 

Although Putin has raised the issue in the past, the timing and high-profile setting of his warning were symbolic; the INF treaty was not supposed to be on the summit's agenda.

 

Putin said Russian withdrawal from INF could come if some of its neighbors, who are developing short-range missiles, are not brought into the treaty's fold.

 

The INF pact is a signature Cold War-era agreement that, if abrogated, could further spook voters in Poland and the Czech Republic, both of which could face shifts of Russian forces beyond their eastern borders if Moscow withdrew from the treaty. Voters in both countries already overwhelmingly oppose the missile defense system, according to recent public opinion polling.

[NASSIR]

Putin stands by Iran

 

The Russian supports Tehran on nuclear and defense issues. Caspian Sea nations at the talks agree to not let their land be used for attacks on one another.

 

By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 17, 2007

TEHRAN -- Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, appearing side by side with his Iranian counterpart at a five-nation summit here Tuesday, made a powerful show of support for America's regional archenemy, drawing the line against any attack on Iran and reaffirming Tehran's right to a civilian nuclear program.

 

At the same time, Putin stopped short of unconditional support for the Iranian regime, although the tenor of his remarks appeared at odds with earlier suggestions from the Bush administration that Putin might take a more pro-Western stance.

 

Officials in Washington did not express disappointment about Putin's visit or his comments, but face a growing challenge in dealing with the Russian leader's maverick, frequently anti-U.S. public statements.

 

The image of Putin smiling in appearances with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well as the leaders of three other nations served to highlight the differences between the Russian and American relationships with Iran, which Washington views as a threat to peace but Moscow considers a valuable ally and trading partner.

 

Days after having publicly dismissed U.S. plans for a missile defense system, Putin arrived in the Iranian capital in a painstakingly scrutinized visit that was the first here by a Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin mapped out World War II strategy with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in 1943.

 

Despite continuing threats from the West against Iran's nuclear ambitions, Putin told reporters that Tehran had the right to continued civilian nuclear enrichment.

 

"Russia is the only country that has assisted Iran in implementing its peaceful nuclear program," Putin said. "We believe all countries have the right to a peaceful nuclear energy program."

 

The Russian president also warned the other Caspian Sea nations present not to allow their countries to be used for military assaults against Iran, a clear message to Washington, which has refused to rule out an attack to halt or slow the Iranian nuclear program it believes is ultimately aimed at building nuclear weapons.

 

"We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state," Putin told reporters.

 

Washington maintains strong military ties with the Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan, and has been wooing Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan for flyover privileges and intelligence sharing. The three nations, all formerly part of the Soviet Union, retain authoritarian leadership and have become political battlegrounds between the U.S. and Russia. At the summit session, the five nations issued a declaration saying they would not allow their territories to be used for military strikes against any of the others.

 

Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, said the U.S. did not object to Putin's appearance with Ahmadinejad, and said the administration still believed that Moscow agreed with U.S. and European aims concerning Iran's nuclear program.

 

"The Russian government position on this hasn't changed," Casey said. "I don't think the Russian government has been, in any way, shape or form, trying to encourage Iran's nuclear developments. In fact, they've been very concerned about it."

 

However, senior U.S. officials earlier had expressed optimism that the Russian president would demonstrate greater public cooperation with American and Western European goals on Iran. The U.S. officials included Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who met with Putin in Moscow on Friday.

 

Tight security was the watchword for the summit, with black-clad Iranian security forces gripping submachine guns lining the upscale streets near the Sadabad Palace, a 19th century compound in north Tehran.

 

Putin came ostensibly to discuss energy, security and environmental policy with his regional counterparts, and international analysts say he would have attended the summit regardless of the heightened international tension over Iran's nuclear program.

 

"In case you haven't noticed, Russia doesn't have a lot of friends," said Dimitri K. Simes, president of the Nixon Center, a Washington think tank, and a Russia expert. "Putin is looking for friends and strategic alliances where he can find them."

 

The U.S. and Western European powers believe Iran is cloaking an effort to build nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists that it is seeking to produce only energy for civilian use. Washington and Paris hope to slap Iran with a third round of international sanctions, which Russia and China oppose.

 

Moscow and Beijing appear more willing than the U.S. to tolerate Iran enriching its own uranium so long as it clears up lingering doubts about the peaceful intent of its past nuclear research. To the long-standing dismay of Washington, Russia is also building a light-water nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr and annually conducts $2 billion in trade with Iran.

 

Despite Putin's rhetorical support, analysts say Moscow harbors misgivings about Iran. The Kremlin deplores Ahmadinejad's belligerent talk, including his questioning of the Holocaust, and Iran's defiant tone on its nuclear program. Russia fears that its association with Iran could damage its carefully cultivated relations with Israel and Europe, especially Germany.

 

Although he condemned any possible U.S. attack, Putin did not vow to stand up for Iran in case of one.

 

And although the Russian president's presence at the summit might have lowered the Iranian government's sense of isolation, Putin left Tehran without granting Iran any of the concessions it had hoped for, including a timetable for the completion of the Russian-built nuclear plant in Bushehr or a deal on divvying up Caspian Sea energy reserves.

 

Putin's visit also signaled Russia's claim to a large share of the oil- and gas-rich Caspian Basin, believed to hold the world's third-largest energy reserves. Russia and Iran are united in opposition to U.S. plans for building pipelines that draw petroleum and natural gas out of the region without passing through either country.

 

Though Iran borders less than 15% of the Caspian, it insists on a fifth of its resources, a demand the other countries reject.

 

Ahmadinejad walked away from the meeting with no clear gains on the Caspian. But Putin's visit itself might mark a milestone for Ahmadinejad, regardless of any tangible outcome.

 

The Russian is considered the first leader of a world power to visit Iran during Ahmadinejad's presidency, which has been criticized at home for tarnishing relations with Persian Gulf countries and Europe and isolating Tehran diplomatically.

 

"His popularity at home has taken a serious fall since the imposition of a fuel-rationing program and failing economic policies which have caused an increase in inflation and unemployment," said Meir Javedanfar, an Israel-based Iran expert. "Ahmadinejad and other pro-nuclear program people in Iran can [now] claim that [the nuclear] issue is putting Iran on the map as a serious regional player."

 

Putin's raising the specter of war, just after meeting with U.S. officials in Moscow, could be interpreted as a subtle warning to the Iranians that the Bush administration could attack from the north as well as from warships in the Persian Gulf.

 

"There's a lot of symbolism involved because Putin is the only high-level leader from a significant country who is personally engaged on the nuclear issue," said a European oil executive based in Tehran, speaking on condition of anonymity.

 

It has become a pattern for U.S. officials to offer muted reaction to Putin's high-profile public criticisms. American officials have repeatedly explained that Putin has been more conciliatory in private meetings than in public statements.

 

Carlos Pascual, a longtime former U.S. official and expert on Russia, said the White House has been mistaken to take Putin's private assurances at face value. He said the friendly face Putin presents behind closed doors is a case of "managing his client," a talent acquired during his years as a KGB officer.

 

"Believe the bluster and don't believe what's said in private," said Pascual, who served as ambassador to Ukraine under Bush and headed Russian affairs at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. "We have it backwards."

 

daragahi@latimes.com

[Taleexi]

History is in the making

[Jacaylbaro]

Didn't he warn against attacks on Iraq before ??? ,, i think this is the same scenatio