Russia's Stand on Iran

Interesting how Russia waited until the Bushehr reactor was approaching completion before they had this convenient change of mind. Well, that and the problems they appear to be having with Iran paying for the reactor. But of course, the Russians deny that any of this has any relations to the happenings in the UNSC.

The Bush administration Tuesday applauded a Russian ultimatum to Iran that it will not supply fuel for Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant until Iran agrees to suspend uranium enrichment.

A senior Bush administration official confirmed the Russian stance and said it will help ratchet up pressure on Iran to end its push for nuclear weapons.

Iran denies its nuclear program is intended for anything but peaceful purposes. Iran's state-run media said Tuesday that Moscow was an "unreliable partner" in nuclear cooperation, The Associated Press reported.

The senior administration official said the move came because Russia has "rising concerns about Iran having nuclear weapons on their southern flank."

The report of the ultimatum first appeared in Tuesday editions of The New York Times.

Russian and Iranian officials denied there had been any ultimatum issued.

"There have been no Russian ultimatums to Iran of any kind," Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said

He added, "Our deal with the Iranians is on track; it's intact; it's still there. We're still working on it."

Churkin said, though, that Russia is "strongly in favor of limiting nuclear proliferation."

Asked about a report that Russia is pulling its engineers from the Iranian nuclear reactor site in Bushehr, he said, "I have not heard that report."

"People rotate personnel and stuff, so be very careful about those matters," Churkin said.

Russia seems pretty unhappy with everyone recently. Pretty much like the US, though for different reasons. I would say that this is an interesting place to start to try and enforce nuclear non-proliferation, but it most certainly is an inconvenient time to start.

The New York Times reported that the ultimatum was delivered last week by Igor Ivanov, Russia's national security adviser, to Ali Hosseini Tash, Iran's deputy chief nuclear negotiator.

Tash, who is also deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said in a Reuters News Service report there had been no ultimatum.

"I deny this news, and the situation was completely the other way around," he said on state-run radio. "Mr. Ivanov was trying to convince us that these issues are not related, meaning the Bushehr issue is not related to the nuclear issue."

In Moscow, the Kremlin's deputy press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, also denied that Russia has issued an "ultimatum" to Iran to withhold nuclear fuel for the Bushehr power plant if Iran does not suspend uranium enrichment.

Peskov told CNN the "language of 'ultimatum' is not appropriate," but several problems do exist.

Wonder if it's less than an ultimatum because they want the money they are owed for the plant. I'd say that I'd hope this was related to the high level of concern for Iran's apparent desire for the bomb and the likelihood that sooner or later the risk of it being used against Russia now has them worried. Well, we can only hope.