Putin Pushing Iran On Secret Plan To End Nuke Crisis
NY Times:
TEHRAN, Oct. 30 — The Russian foreign minister will make a surprise visit to Iran today to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and discuss Iran’s nuclear program, Russian and Iranian news agencies reported.
Sergey V. Lavrov, who was on a visit in Kazakhstan in Central Asia, said he would make a working visit to Iran to meet Mr. Ahmadinejad in Tehran, the Interfax news agency reported.
In Moscow, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mikhail Kamynin, said Mr. Lavrov would discuss Iran’s nuclear activities as well as bilateral ties, Interfax said.
“A number of issues connected to the situation around Iran’s nuclear program and a number of questions of bilateral questions will be discussed,” the news agency reported.
The semiofficial Fars news agency said the meeting was scheduled to take place around 7.30 p.m. local time.
Mr. Lavrov’s visit comes two weeks after the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, made a landmark trip to Iran, the first Kremlin leader to travel there since 1943. Mr. Putin has insisted on a diplomatic solution to the international standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.
After Mr. Putin’s visit, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said the Russian president had delivered a proposal to Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on state matters.
Neither the Iranians nor the Russians would disclose any details, but Mr. Larijani said that it involved a new way to help resolve the nuclear standoff and that the Iranian side was studying it.
State-run television and news agencies quoted Ayatollah Khamenei at the time as telling Mr. Putin, “We will think about what you said and about your proposal,” even as he added that Iran was “determined to provide our country’s need for nuclear energy.”
Mr. Larijani resigned last week over differences with Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Since then the United States announced new unilateral sanctions on Iran, accusing its Revolutionary Guards of illegally spreading weapons of mass destruction.
Mr. Putin criticized the move. “Why worsen the situation by threatening sanctions and bring it to a dead end?” he asked, according to news agencies.
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“Mr. Putin criticized the move. “Why worsen the situation by threatening sanctions and bring it to a dead end?”
Ah, he’s just pissed that if we go in and blow crap up he won’t have his big buyer anymore.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:19 pmThis should be rich.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:52 pmI assume this will be a variant on the plan to have Russia take full operational and management control of the plant, and use it under international guidelines. So the question is: can the Russians be trusted?
October 30th, 2007 at 8:11 pmAs a good Communist, I assume that the last check to Putin bounced. So, he is against any sanctions until his bribe money clears.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:24 pm