CHINA’S DECISION ON IRAN DEPENDS ON KREMLIN?

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.11.2009 10:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran’s failure to respond to an international
offer to enrich much of its uranium stockpile outside the country –
for use in a Tehran medical research facility – is again raising the
prospect of tougher sanctions, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

The article titled "Is Russia playing both sides on Iran nukes?" reads:

"Much of the focus of the sanctions debate is falling on Russia, which
has blown hot and cold on additional punitive measures on Iran over
its nuclear program – but which is sounding open to the idea once
again. The attention is reviving lingering questions about Russian
assistance – either official or unauthorized – to Iran’s nuclear
program and weapons research.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy
issued a statement Monday warning Iran that "the international
community’s patience is not infinite." The two leaders, in Berlin
for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, said they
"do not rule out" another round of sanctions aimed at the Iranian
leadership and its advancing nuclear program.

Those words followed comments by President Medvedev over the
weekend to German journalists, when he suggested that Russia could
support additional sanctions if Iran fails to take the opportunity to
cooperate with world powers in its nuclear program. Noting the offers
now before the Iranian leadership, Medvedev told Germany’s Der Spiegel
magazine, "I wouldn’t like to see all that ending in the introduction
of international sanctions … but if there is no movement forward,
no one is excluding such a scenario."

The US, Russia, and France last month negotiated a deal with Iranian
officials to remove almost three-quarters of Iran’s slightly-enriched
uranium stockpile to Russia and France for further enrichment to a
level needed for a research reactor.

Removal of the uranium would ease international concerns about Iran’s
nuclear intentions and allow for what the Obama administration hopes
would be fruitful negotiations with Iran on a range of issues.

But Iranian state media reports and statements from some Iranian
lawmakers suggest the government will reject the deal – perhaps
offering to buy the uranium it needs for its reactor and moving
its uranium stockpile to a domestic location for international
surveillance instead.

Eyes have turned to Russia because, as a veto-wielding member of the
UN Security Council, it could squelch any move to impose additional
sanctions through the council. China also holds veto power in
the Security Council and has discouraged talk of a new sanctions
resolution, but some diplomats believe that it would go along if
Russia decided to support new punitive measures.

Russia also has close economic ties to Iran and a history of
cooperation with Iran on both its nuclear program and defensive
military development.

"There’s quite a bit of military cooperation between the two countries,
and suspected nuclear cooperation before ’04," says David Albright,
president of the Institute for Science and International Security
in Washington.

Officially, Russia has sold defensive missile systems to Tehran –
though it is currently holding up delivery of a more sophisticated
surface-to-air system, drawing protests from Iranian officials. "The
Russians seem to modulate that cooperation depending on how things
are going," Mr. Albright says, noting there could be a connection
between Iran’s lack of response to the uranium deal and the Russian
brakes on delivery of the new missile system.

But suspicions have also grown over the last year that Russian
scientists, perhaps acting in an unofficial or "rogue" capacity,
have been assisting their Iranian colleagues in pursuit of a nuclear
weapon and weapons delivery systems. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu is believed to have flown secretly to Moscow in September
to present Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with
a list of names of Russian scientists that Israel says took nuclear
know-how to Iran.

Those reports have prompted some members of Congress to pressure
President Obama to report to Congress on suspected Russia-Iran
nuclear cooperation before the US pursues any new or additional
nuclear accords with Russia."