Unreliable Partner

**donsaeid** · 03-20-2007, 09:53 AM

dorost hamon hadnamei ke Qajar dar golestan va tokmanchai nevesht! dobare tekrar shod! it makes me sooooooooooooooooo mad!

**donsaeid** · 03-20-2007, 09:59 AM

Iran state TV calls Russia "an unreliable partner"

TEHRAN, Iran: Iranian state television on Tuesday described Russia as an "unreliable partner" following a bitter business dispute over delays in building the country's first nuclear reactor.

In a commentary, state television criticized Russia for what it described as a policy of procrastination in constructing the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran. It said politics, not technical issues, were the reason behind the delay.

"Double standard stances by Russian officials regarding Iran's nuclear issue shows that Russians are not a reliable partner in the field of nuclear cooperation," the commentary said.

The nuclear reactor outside the southern city of Bushehr is not part of Iran's dispute with the U.N. Security Council and the reactor itself has no potential military use.

Russia announced earlier this month that construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran would be delayed at least two months because Iran had failed to make monthly payments since January. It said the delay could cause "irreversible" damage to the project.

Because of the delay, Russia also indefinitely postponed delivery of enriched uranium fuel it had promised to provide Iran in March.

Iran has denied the Russian claims, saying it has fulfilled its financial obligations and even has paid Russia down payments. It warned it may make public

banking documents that show the payments.

"It is clear that Russia has stopped construction of this plant under pressure and for political reasons," the television said.

While Iranian lawmakers and analysts have been critical of Moscow, it is the first time that state-run media publicly has called Russia an "unreliable partner."

Despite the international pressure, Iran has indicated it wants to obtain technology to build and design nuclear plants.

"Iran is trying to join countries, within the next few years, possessing technology to build nuclear power plants," the commentary said.

Iran is already building a 40-megawatt heavy water reactor in Arak, central Iran, based on domestic technology. It is also preparing to build a 360-megawatt nuclear power plant in Darkhovin, in southwestern Iran.

**donsaeid** · 03-20-2007, 10:03 AM

Getting a Fair Deal with Iran

Comment by Vladimir Frolov
Special to Russia Profile

Russia’s Relations with Tehran Reach a Turning Point

Over the past three weeks, Russia has been gradually increasing pressure on Iran to change its course on the nuclear issue.

First, Moscow used a financing dispute with Tehran to threaten a halt on construction work at the Bushehr power plant. According to Russian officials, Iran missed its regular $50 million payment and asked Moscow to supply nuclear fuel for the reactor in March or finance the completion of the nuclear plant out of its own pocket.

Russia rightly refused, sensing an attempt at political blackmail and a ruse by Iran to get hold of nuclear fuel. After all, Iran could save time by feeding low-enriched uranium provided by Russia into its centrifuges to produce weapons-grade uranium.

Moscow used the dispute to raise public pressure on Iran. Russian officials leaked reports that Iran was making the payments conditional on Russian support for Iran in the UN Security Council, including a Russian veto of a new resolution to authorize another set of sanctions against Iran.

It was becoming clear that Tehran was using Moscow’s financial interests to leverage its position with the United States. Iran was also pushing Moscow to take a much more anti-American stance in the hope of entangling Russia in an anti-American alliance, and tried to pressure Moscow financially through a cut-off in payments for Bushehr. The Iranian leadership appeared to believe that Russia’s growing differences with the United States were significant enough to override all other Russian interests and become the sole rationale for Russia’s foreign policy.

Iran badly miscalculated. For one thing, the Bushehr project is no longer of much commercial interest to Russia. Most of the money under the $1 billion contract has already been disbursed, and the remaining $150 million is now small change to the Russian nuclear industry, which has a long list of orders for civilian nuclear power plants from India, Finland, Bulgaria and Hungary, not to mention an ambitious domestic program to build several dozen of nuclear power plants by 2020.

In fact, Russia could not care less if the Bushehr reactor were not completed at all due to Iranian intransigence. Press reports indicate Russian workers are leaving Bushehr and subcontractors are canceling orders. For Iran, a misstep on Bushehr could bring a lifetime of regrets.

Secondly, Moscow does not particularly like to feel as if it is being used. When Tehran hinted at the need to form a joint front against the United States and insisted that Russia should take a more pro-Iranian stance in the Security Council by blocking new sanctions, Moscow felt it no need to play somebody else’s game.

Playing your own game is the new mantra in Moscow. In every international situation, Russia intends to pursue only its own interests as they are understood by Russian elites. As if heeding a U.S. president’s call to avoid becoming embroiled in international alliances, Russia will go it alone for the foreseeable future. This is what the Iranians didn’t appreciate.

It will be against Russia’s national interests to ally itself with Iran against the United States. Russia may have a complicated relationship with the United States, finding a lot at fault in some of the U.S. policies and feeling frustrated and angry at U.S. criticisms of Russia’s democracy, but there is no one within Moscow power circles who would advocate a confrontational course with regard to the United States.

Russian elites know from first-hand experience that such policies will be extremely costly to Russia and would ruin any prospects for the country’s strategic modernization. Iran might be an important regional partner, but Moscow’s interests in a stable and cooperative relationship with Washington far outweigh any benefits from an alliance with Tehran.

This does not mean that Russia will support every U.S. proposal by default. Moscow will never back military action against Iran and would be quite happy to leave the United States to face the consequences of its hardball tactics, as it did in Iraq. This is what Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said over the weekend. In fact, the Kremlin may have calculated that Washington was moving in the direction of military strikes against Iran and that it would be wrong for Russia to find itself too closely aligned with Iran at such a moment.

Iran also underestimated Russia’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation. Despite the uninformed criticism in the West of Russia’s approach to the Iranian nuclear program, Moscow has for years advocated the strict following of the rules established by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). So when it was revealed that Iran had for years engaged in nuclear fuel activities undisclosed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia’s support for Iran and the Bushehr project became strictly conditional on Iran coming clean before the international community and providing answers to the IAEA questions necessary to certify its compliance. Iran’s continued reluctance to provide those answers and stop all enrichment activities forced Russia to support the Security Council resolution in October that imposed economic sanctions on Iran. Tehran also failed to take up Russia’s very generous offer of a joint facility to enrich uranium in Russia and provide fuel for the Bushehr power plant.

Iran was given until Feb. 21 to come clean on its enrichment activities. That deadline passed, and the IAEA Secretary General reported that Iran failed to provide answers to all the Agency’s questions on its fuel cycle activities. Instead, the Iranian president vowed to accelerate the assembly of enrichment centrifuges and even indicated that it might replace Russian nuclear fuel with its domestically produced low-enriched uranium, which was a case of pure bluster. This proved to be too much for Moscow to bear, and Russia decided to support a new draft of the Security Council resolution that would further strengthen sanctions on Iran.

Over the weekend, a senior Kremlin official sent a tough-love message to Tehran – Russia cannot help Iran in the UN since Iran refuses to cooperate with the international community; Russia will not allow Iran to drag it into an anti-American coalition and Russia will not accept a nuclear-armed Iran. This does not mean that Russia will support a U.S.-led war to prevent Iran from going nuclear, but suggests simply that Russia will not actively oppose it.

Iran has overplayed its hand in its relations with Russia. It will now have to face the consequences of this behavior. Russia has done its best to solve the Iranian nuclear issue peacefully and return Iran to the NPT compliance. But this policy has its limits and Moscow has finally run out of options. Now Russia is offering a new deal to Iran – clean up your act now or face further setbacks.

It’s a fair deal.

**donsaeid** · 03-20-2007, 10:05 AM

Russia Shows Signs of Dissatisfaction With Iran

By Sergei Blagov

March 19, 2007

Moscow (CNSNews.com) - In two moves likely to increase pressure in Iran, Russia is moving towards launching an international uranium enrichment center and towards greater cooperation with the United States over nuclear fuel.

Moscow plans to put its planned enrichment center into operation soon, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday. The Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are due to hold a meeting this week to discuss the facility, which is to be set up in Siberia's Irkutsk region.

Last year, Russia proposed setting up such a center under the supervision of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog to provide nuclear energy services to interested nations.

The plan aims to help prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, with Iran currently posing the greatest concern. If nations can get supplies for nuclear energy without having to master the nuclear fuel cycle, the thinking goes, then they will be less likely to develop the capability to make nuclear weapons.

President Vladimir Putin has said the facility and its services will be open to any nation.

The move comes at a time of apparent cooling in Moscow towards Iran, which up to now has enjoyed Russia's backing, especially in the U.N. Security Council where Tehran's nuclear program has been under fire.

On March 12, Russian news agencies quoted an anonymous senior official in Moscow who accused the Iranians of abusing Russia's approach to the dispute, thus undermining Russia's image. The source made it clear Iran's conduct could not continue and urged the Iranians to "answer for themselves."

Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov said Sunday that the possible acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran would threaten Russia's interests and urged Iran to resolve issues causing concern to the international community, in particular, freezing uranium enrichment.

Alongside its nuclear fuel facility plans, Moscow has also indicated a new willingness to cooperate with Washington on nuclear fuel issues.

Russia is in talks with the U.S. to coordinate global sales of nuclear fuel, making it affordable for countries wanting it to produce electricity, while discouraging them from enriching uranium, U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell told journalists in Moscow last week.

"We hope to group fuel supplier nations that will offer services on a very attractive commercial basis, maybe on discount terms," Sell said. The offer would separate nations with energy needs from those with military ambitions, he said. This would "hopefully take away the desire, not the right, for nations to enrich their own uranium."

Rosatom head Sergei ***iyenko is due to travel to Washington in May to discuss details of the nuclear fuel project. In recent days, ***iyenko has repeatedly urged Iran to comply with the contract terms relating to the nuclear power plant that Russia is building in the southern city of Bushehr.

The $1 billion project being built under a 1995 contract has been in jeopardy after Atomstroyexport, the Russian state-run contractor, said Tehran had not made any payments since mid-January, and that by the fourth quarter of 2006 the project had received only 60 percent of the required funding.

Iran has denied the charges of non-payment, accusing Russia of giving in to Western pressure in a bid to force Tehran to end its controversial nuclear program.

Tehran said last week it had paid a $12.7 million installment on March 1, but Russia is denying receiving the payment. Atomstroyexport announced on March 12 that Bushehr would not become operational earlier than November due to the funding problems.

The Bushehr contract involves the Russian supply of a 1,000-megawatt reactor, training of Iranian specialists and delivery of nuclear fuel for the reactor. Bushehr was originally expected to go online in 2006.

In recent years, Iranian officials have suggested that Russia could become a partner in the building of a further 20 nuclear power stations in Iran with a total capacity of 20,000 megawatts. Russian officials said Moscow was interested in building more units at Bushehr, but these statements are yet to be backed up by concrete agreements.

Last September, the two sides agreed on a new timetable under which Russia would deliver fuel to the power station this March, six months before the start-up of the reactor, initially scheduled for September 2007.

**donsaeid** · 03-20-2007, 10:05 AM

Russia gives Iran enrichment ultimatum - NYTimes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia has told Iran that it will withhold fuel for Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant unless Tehran suspends its uranium enrichment program as the U.N. Security Council demands, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The ultimatum was delivered in Moscow last week by Igor Ivanov, the secretary of the Russian National Security Council, to Ali Hosseini Tash, Iran's deputy chief nuclear negotiator, the newspaper reported, citing European, American and Iranian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

When asked about the article, a senior Iranian official told Reuters: "No, not at all. This has not been an issue."

The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment.

A senior European official told the newspaper, "We consider this a very important decision by the Russians. It shows that our disagreements with the Russians about the dangers of Iran's nuclear program are tactical. Fundamentally, the Russians don't want a nuclear Iran."

The U.N. Security Council was expected to vote this week to impose new sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used to generate power and in nuclear bombs.

Tehran ignored a Feb. 21 deadline to suspend its atomic work, insisting the nuclear program is solely for energy. The West fears Iran is secretly working to build atomic weapons.

In the past month, Russian officials acknowledged that Russia was delaying the delivery of fuel to the reactor in the port city of Bushehr, blaming the decision on the failure of Iran to pay what it owes on the project, not over concerns about nuclear proliferation, the Times said.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told European officials last month that Russia had made a political decision not to deliver the fuel and would say publicly that the sole reason was financial, the report said.

The report on the Times' Web site said a senior Iranian official confirmed in an interview that Russia had informed Iran the fuel would be delivered only after Iran's enrichment of uranium was frozen.

**donsaeid** · 03-20-2007, 10:08 AM

Outside View: Russia-Iran tensions

By LEONID RADZHIKHOVSKY

MOSCOW, March 19 (UPI) -- Russia has received no payments since January for construction work on the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran. Russia took offense after two months of talks and announced that construction would be suspended.

Anyone can see the contractor's point: There is no reason to hurry if the client isn't coughing up the money.

The latter's stance is also understandable: "What kind of a fool would pay?! Are we friends, or what?"

I will dare to re-create the two countries' dialogue of cross purposes.

RUSSIA. We have done this and that. What about our money?

IRAN. Right! We hate the U.S. like poison!

RUSSIA. Wha-a-at?

IRAN. Anything unclear?

RUSSIA. Hmm. We're here to talk money, aren't we?

IRAN. We are talking money. We hate Yankees!

RUSSIA. But ... what about our money?

IRAN. Wha-a-at?

RUSSIA. See, the Bushehr contract is worth $1 billion. We'd like ... Uh ... We can wait, sure.

(The Iranian delegates hold a short conference among themselves. The interpreters are replaced.)

IRAN. Sorry, we have had to change our interpreters. What were you saying?

RUSSIA. What about our money?

IRAN. We see. The Bushehr contract is essential, isn't it?

RUSSIA (blushing). We are glad you see that.

IRAN. We're glad, too. The contract really matters to us.

RUSSIA. To us, too!

IRAN. It matters much more than $1 billion!

RUSSIA. We can do with $1 billion, all right!

IRAN. The contract implies, as a matter of principle, the de facto establishment of a united front against the Great Satan: U.S. imperialism and global Zionism, which controls it, with their ignoble lies about the Holocaust. The world's best scholars have convincingly refuted those fables, which intend to substantiate the Zionist ...

RUSSIA. All that might be very interesting, but it's somewhat off the point.

IRAN. The lies about the Holocaust are used as a Zionist bludgeon not only against the Arab world but against Europe, too. Now, if ...

(The Russians and Iranians start talking all at once -- and all fall silent at the same instant, exchanging perplexed glances. The Iranian delegates hold another conference among themselves. The interpreters are replaced again.)

IRAN. Gentlemen, let us sum everything up now. The importance of our contract is mainly political, as part of our resistance to global U.S.-Zionist aggression. That is the point of our partnership, the way we see it. That is why we are so willing to be partners. Evidently, this situation makes fees a mere technicality -- something we can take up any time.

RUSSIA. Why not take it up now?

IRAN. No objection. We only have to say that money is no yardstick for our friendship with Russia! We will not put up with the idea of a unipolar world. The Russian president said so, and worded it admirably. We share his opinions on that score. That's what underlies our friendship. Free nations will never reconcile themselves to the Zionist diktat. The Iranian president said so, and worded it admirably.

RUSSIA. What about our money?

IRAN. We'll get to that, but only after a short technical break, if you have no objections.

--

Such talks can go on ad infinitum, much to either delegation's chagrin. The situation, however, is as plain as it can be. Iran merely does not want to untie its purse strings. It is sure that might is right, and talks to anyone -- not just Russia -- from a position of strength. The Iranian leadership sees this as a very convenient arrangement. At any rate, it bears good fruit, particularly with Russia. Last but not least, Iran suspects Russia of harboring Great Power ambitions and of scheming to stay at the card table with the United States, even though it has run out of chips. If that were really so, Russia would need Iran as a partner. However, being a junior partner is the last thing Iran wants. After all, it is no Belarus under Alexander Lukashenko. Iran will allow Russia to kiss its derriere, but it will not be the kisser -- too proud for that! As a reward, it wants Russia to build the Bushehr plant gratis, or for a token sum.

What we see here is a clash of two concepts.

In its relations with Russia, Iran clings to the old, Soviet concept by which the Soviet Union -- and also the United States, for that matter -- held onto its alleged friends. "We hate the United States, and you build things for us in exchange," is how it sounds.

The new Russian concept rests on free-market principles. These make Russia willing to help with political declarations, but nothing more. Unlike the United States, Russia charges full price for its commodities and services.

We shall soon see which concept carries the day in the current dispute.

**donsaeid** · 03-21-2007, 04:24 PM

لاوروف: روسيه مجازات شديد عليه ايران را هرگز تاييد نخواهد كرد

وزير امور خارجه روسيه گفت: كشورش مجازات شديد عليه ايران در شوراي امنيت را هرگز تاييد نخواهد كرد.

به نقل از خبرگزاري رويترز، سرگي لاوروف امروز در شوراي نمايندگان پارلمان روسيه اعلام كرد: كشورش مجازات شديد عليه ايران در شوراي امنيت را هرگز تاييد نخواهد كرد.

لاوروف افزود: «ما پيش از اين توافق كرديم در زمينه ايران به تدريج و با تناسب حركت كنيم و مجازات شديد را هرگز تاييد نخواهيم كرد.»

انتظار مي*رود شوراي امنيت اين هفته اعمال مجازات جديد عليه ايران را به خاطر خودداري اين كشور از توقف غني*سازي اورانيوم خود بررسي كند.

لاوروف در سخنان خود به نوع اقداماتي كه مسكو از آن به مجازات*هاي شديد عليه ايران ياد مي*كند، اشاره*اي نكرد.
وزير امور خارجه روسيه در ادامه گفت: «آفريقاي جنوبي و اندونزي اصلاحيه*ها و تعديلاتي را بر قطعنامه پيشنهادي سازمان ملل اعلام داشته*اند كه در كنار هر چيز ديگري نشان*دهنده بعد بين*المللي منع گسترش سلاح*هاي هسته*اي است و ما معتقديم اين تعديلات و اصلاحيه*ها بايد بيشتر مورد بررسي و توجه قرار گيرد و خود با آن برخوردي سازنده خواهيم داشت.»
آفريقاي جنوبي خواستار تعليق همه مجازات*هاي ايران و تجديد مذاكرات شده است.
با وجود اينكه ايران همواره اعلام كرده برنامه هسته*ايش صلح*آميز و براي دستيابي به منابع جديد انرژي است و به بازرسان آژانس بين*المللي انرژي اتمي اجازه داده از تاسيسات هسته*اي آن بازديد كنند، اما غرب و در صدر آن آمريكا اين كشور را به تلاش براي دستيابي به سلاح هسته*اي متهم مي*كنند.
از سوي ديگر بازرسان آژانس بين*المللي انرژي اتمي نيز اعلام كرده*اند در بازرسي*هايشان از تاسيسات هسته*اي ايران انحرافي به سوي سلاح*هاي هسته*اي نديده*اند.

**donsaeid** · 03-21-2007, 04:25 PM

ابراز همدردي ايران با مردم روسيه در ارتباط با حوادث اخير اين كشور

سخنگوي وزارت امور خارجه در ارتباط با حوادث غير مترقبه طي روزهاي اخير در روسيه، با مردم و دولت روسيه ابراز همدردي كرد.

به نقل از اداه كل اطلاعات و مطبوعات وزارت خارجه، *سخنگوي وزارت امور خارجه كشورمان از حوادث غير مترقبه در معدن ذغال سنگ در منطقه سيبري و آتش*سوزي خانه سالمندان در استان كراسنودار و سقوط هواپيماي مسافربري در فرودگاه شهر سامارا كه موجب كشته و مجروح شدن تعداد زيادي از مردم روسيه گرديد، ابراز تأسف و همدردي نمود.

حسيني افزود: بروز اين حوادث موجب تأثر و تألم مردم و دولت جمهوري اسلامي ايران گرديد و ضمن اعلام همدردي با خانواده قربانيان و مردم و دولت روسيه آرزوي سلامتي و بهبودي را براي مجروحين اين حوادث مسئلت كرد.

**donsaeid** · 03-21-2007, 04:26 PM

روسيه خبر تعيين ضرب*الاجل براي ايران را تكذيب كرد

شوراي امنيت روسيه اخبار منتشره در روزنامه نيويورك تايمز آمريكا مبني بر اينكه اگر ايران از قطعنامه شوراي امنيت پيروي نكند، روسيه سوخت هسته اي مورد نياز نيروگاه بوشهر را به اين كشور تحويل نخواهد داد را تكذيب نمود.

به نقل از سايت خبري «لنتا» روسيه، شوراي امنيت فدراسيون روسيه خبر منتشره از سوي برخي رسانه هاي گروهي آمريكا مبني بر اينكه روسيه براي ايران ضرب الاجل تعيين كرده است كه در صورت عدم توقف غني سازي اورانيوم، سوخت هسته اي به نيروگاه اتمي بوشهر ارسال نخواهد شد را تكذيب نمود.

دفتر مطبوعاتي شوراي فدراسيون روسيه در بيانيه اي متذكر شد: «خبر منتشره از سوي روزنامه نيويورك تايمز، مبني بر اينكه طي رايزني هاي انجام شده بين ايران و روسيه، طرف روسي براي ايران ضرب الاجل تعيين كرده است، حقيقت ندارد. در شوراي امنيت تاكيد شده است كه حل و فصل مسئله هسته اي ايران، هيچ ارتباطي با اتمام كار ساخت نيروگاه اتمي بوشهر از سوي روسيه ندارد.
ويتالي چوركين، نماينده دائم روسيه در سازمان ملل متحد نيز در گفتگو با خبرنگاران در نيويورك اخبار منتشره در مطبوعات آمريكايي مبني بر اينكه اگر ايران از قطعنامه شوراي امنيت پيروي نكند، روسيه سوخت هسته اي را به اين كشور تحويل نخواهد داد را تكذيب نمود.
وي تاكيد كرد: «همكاري روسيه با ايران در ساخت نيروگاه اتمي بوشهر كه طرحي صلح آميز و غير نظامي است، با كار بر روي قطعنامه مربوط به ايران در شوراي امنيت سازمان ملل متحد كه پرونده اي حساس مي*باشد، با يكديگر مرتبط نمي باشند». به گفته وي، ساخت نيروگاه بوشهر، طرح اقتصادي جداگانه اي است كه چه با قطعنامه قبلي و چه با قطعنامه در دست تنظيم و مباحثات گروه (1+5) ،هيچ ارتباطي ندارد.