Russia, Iran harden against West
In a historic first visit to Iran, Russian President Putin affirmed support for Tehran's nuclear program and rebuffed any militarization in the Caspian region.
from the October 18, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
"We must not see this as a zero-sum game," says Mr. Afrasiabi, a former adviser to Iran's nuclear negotiating team. "It would be sheer error on the part of US officials to berate President Putin for this trip to Iran, and extending an olive branch to the Iranian leadership … given the fact that Russia has been influential in steering Iran toward greater cooperation with the [International Atomic Energy Agency] to answer key questions."
In a joint statement, the two presidents noted the "closeness" of their positions "over the key world questions," and the "necessity of solving as quickly as possible the situation over the Iranian nuclear program through politics and diplomacy."
Analysts say Iran hopes the summit will help shift its nuclear dossier from the Security Council to the normal purview of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency. Last week, Putin said, "We have no real data to claim that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, which makes us believe the country has no such plans."
Still, Iran has accused Russia of caving in to the West, and dragging its feet on completion of Bushehr. In turn, Moscow has accused Iran of being slow on payments – a charge Iran denies – and has delayed the start-up of the power reactor planned for this fall.
And amid the controversy over the final intent of Iran's program, there has been little progress on a deal to ship Russian nuclear fuel – or fuel from a joint Iranian-Russian program on Russian soil – to the Bushehr reactor. Moscow says that will happen six months before the reactor goes on line.
When pressed on the timing of the opening, Putin told Iranian reporters, "I only gave promises to my mom when I was a small boy."
The visit underscores an increasingly similar global outlook between the two nations.
"Growing anxiety about the post-9/11 US interventionist and militarist policies … explains the lion's share of why we witness President Putin in Tehran," says Afrasiabi. "That is the binding factor between Iran and Russia, both of which are objects of coercive diplomacy by the US today."
Indeed, Putin has reacted strongly to US plans to deploy a missile-defense system in eastern Europe. In July he notified NATO that Russia was pulling out of a cold-war treaty to limit conventional forces in Europe, and in August relaunching long-range strategic bomber patrols.
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