Clinton's visit to Russia brings no result on Iran - analyst
RIA-Novosti
October 16, 2009
The first visit of US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to Russia has not brought Washington the results it expected on Iran, Radzhab Safarov, director-general of the Centre for the Study of Modern Iran, has said, as reported by Russian news agency RIA Novosti on 16 October.
Safarov described Clinton's visit as a "failure", the agency reported. "It is no secret that it was Iran that was the key issue in her talks package. Clinton was willing to confirm the success reached by the USA on Iran three weeks ago (at the G20 summit) in Pittsburgh as soon as possible," Safarov was quoted as saying.
The USA regarded Russia's goodwill gesture in Pittsburgh (President Medvedev's words to the effect that in some cases sanctions are inevitable) as Russia's new stance on Iran and did not do anything to set up a system of incentives for Iran that would allow for the problems of using Iran's peaceful atom to be resolved, the analyst said. Moreover, "it makes no sense to discuss sanctions while talks are in progress", he added.
"In a situation like this how can one seek Russia's consent to new sanctions against Iran?. Had the USA insisted on Russia's consent (to introduce sanctions), this would mean one thing only - everything that is done to settle the Iranian issue would be utmost hypocrisy and profanation on the part of the USA," the analyst said.
Furthermore, "Russia's support of new sanctions against Iran could lead to serious deterioration of Russian-Iranian relations in all areas; it would also worsen Russian-Chinese relations because new sanctions would jeopardize China's interests in Iran as China invests a great deal in Iran's oil and gas deposits", Safarov said.
"Russia cannot fail to take into account its own interests in Iran. Any deterioration in Russia-Iranian relations is linked to the loss of huge political dividends, first and foremost, as well as colossal economic damage.
At the same time, any deterioration in Russian-Chinese relations would immediately make a most negative impact on Russia's politics and economy," Safarov was quoted as saying.
"It's ... the weakening of Russia that the US policy in Iran is aimed at in the long run," Safarov said.
"Therefore, it is quite clear that Russia will never again support US doubtful, politically biased proposals, in particular, new sanctions against Iran. Today Russia has a sufficient political and economic potential to defend its interests everywhere effectively enough," the agency quoted Safarov as saying.
