#8 - RW 260
Confounding US and Britain, Russia says nuclear link with Iran still on
June 5, 2003
AFP

Russia said it would supply nuclear fuel to Iran even if it failed to allow stricter UN inspections in a move defying international concerns.

Moscow's latest comments put further strain on its relations with the West over Iran -- identified as a member of an "axis of evil" by Washington -- just as the two sides' positions seemed to converge over the simmering dispute.

"Of course," a top Russian foreign ministry spokesman retorted when asked whether Russia would supply Iran with nuclear fuel for its first reactor even if Tehran failed to sign a new UN protocol allowing broader inspections of its weapons program.

Those two words laid to waste British Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement Wednesday that Putin had at the recent G8 summit committed Russia not to sell nuclear fuel to Iran until it agreed to stricter international controls.

US media also reported that Moscow had given such assurances to Washington twice -- once during a recent visit here by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and the second time at the G8 talks.

Moscow contests US accusations that oil-rich Iran is using its atomic sites to develop nuclear weapons and is continuing to help build Iran's first nuclear power station at Bushehr.

But Putin recently said the positions of Russia and the West on Iran were "closer than they seem" and agreed that the international community must focus on Tehran's military ambitions.

The Russian foreign ministry spokesman also stressed that Moscow still wanted to see Iran agree to stricter control by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"As for the additional protocols with the IAEA, Russia has actively worked on the development of these protocols and believes that their signature will significantly help in non-proliferation issues," Yakovenko said.

The media and other observers here have struggled to comprehend the apparent volte-face in Russia's position.

Some suggested that Blair and other leaders simply did not understand which protocol on Iran Putin was talking about.

Moscow must still seal its own separate protocol with Tehran guaranteeing that all spent fuel from Bushehr is returned to Russia.

Some suggested that Putin could have been talking about this specific agreement at the G8 and not the broader UN cooperation protocol.

Others said that Moscow may now simply be furious that the West has leaked information that Putin disclosed in private and which had not been previously reported in Russia.

"If this agreement was confidential, and British diplomats leaked it out to their media, then Russia can feel that its hands are not longer tied" in its relations with Iran, said Anton Khlopkov, an Iran expert at the PIR Center military research institute.

Russia's announcement Thursday also complicates an upcoming visit here by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom of Israel -- a country that views Iran as one of its greatest security threats.

Shalom told the Izvestia daily ahead of his three-day visit which starts Monday that Iran could develop weapons of mass destruction within three years.

"This greatly concerns Israel and, I think, should concern Russia as well," Shalom said.

Other observers here however tend to believe that Putin has indeed agreed to go slow on Iran even if the precise details of how this will be accomplish still remain unclear.

Always full of vivid speculation, some in the Russian media suggested that Russia and the United States have reached a Tehran-for-Baghdad tradeoff: Moscow would halt its Iranian projects and win Iraqi oil ones in return.

The Kommersant business daily reported that the first team of Russian oil bigwigs arrived Wednesday in Baghdad for the first time since the Iraq war, which Moscow had vehemently opposed.

Kommersant said that even though Putin's latest comments about Iran seemed vague at times, "it is apparent that the United States clearly understands Moscow's true position.

"They have opened the road to Baghdad to our oilmen," Kommersant concluded.

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