IRAN OFFERS MEDIATION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND GEORGIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.10.2008 17:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Educational and
Research Affairs Manuchehr Mohammadi expressed Iran’s protest to the
extension of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to the East.

Mohammadi said the regional governments should distance themselves
from competitive and hostile policies which have remained from the
cold war era.

"NATO’s presence in a region it is not familiar with would not be
to its benefit because it has already experienced an unsuccessful
presence in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

U.S. President George W. Bush signed papers Friday to formally
declare U.S. support of NATO membership for Albania and Croatia. Bush
also reiterated U.S. support for prospective NATO members Ukraine,
Georgia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bush added, "The door
to NATO membership also remains open to the people of Serbia should
they choose that path."

NATO leaders agreed at a summit earlier this year in Romania to
invite Albania and Croatia into the alliance. However, NATO rebuffed
U.S. attempts to begin the process of inviting Ukraine and Georgia,
both former Soviet republics, to join.

Despite strong U.S. backing to bring them in, Germany, France,
and some other alliance members opposed the move, fearing it would
provoke Russia which has made it clear it would regard such a move
as something close to a hostile action by NATO.

France’s minister for European affairs on Wednesday said he was
opposed to Georgia and Ukraine entering the NATO military alliance
for now because it would not benefit Europe.

NATO foreign ministers are set to once again examine Georgia and
Ukraine’s candidacy for membership in December.

Russia launched a military attack on Georgia on August 8 in response
to a Georgian military offensive to take the region of South Ossetia
back under the government control.

Mohammadi said the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia is one
of the most important events since the September 11 attacks on the
United States which would have a great influence on the international
relations.

He said the 16th conference of the Central Asia and Caucasus, due to
be held in Tehran this week, will specifically focus on the Caucasus
conflict and its effects on the world.

Mohammadi said experts from different countries including the United
States, Britain, Armenia, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Russia, India,
Sweden, Georgia, Japan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Poland
will attend the conference.

He insisted that Iran believes the Caucasus conflict has not yet
ended and expressed Tehran’s readiness to mediate between Russia and
Georgia to resolve the issue, Tehran Times reports