Russia worried over un report on Iran

Πηγή: The Peninsula
By Reuters
Oct 20 2011

VIENNA: Russia fears a UN report which is expected to heighten suspicions about Iran’s atomic ambitions could undermine Moscow’s initiative to help resolve a nuclear dispute with Tehran, diplomatic sources said yesterday.

Russia’s concern about the timing of the UN report, due next month, contrasts with the hopes of Western states that the document will strengthen their case to step up pressure on the country over its nuclear programme.

Western powers fear Iran is using its nuclear programme to develop weapons. Iran says it needs to refine uranium for a planned network of nuclear power plants. Russia’s concerns may be a sign of differences among the six major powers involved in the search for a solution to the nuclear row — the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — on how to approach the Iran issue. Russia, which has commercial and other links with Iran, has proposed a step-by-step diplomatic effort to defuse the nuclear standoff but Western diplomats have given the plan a cool response. Moscow and Beijing have backed four rounds of UN sanctions on Iran since 2006 over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work that could have both civilian and military uses.

But they criticised the US and the EU last year for taking additional unilateral steps against the major oil producer and it is uncertain whether they would back any new Western sanctions push at the United Nations. “I think it is unlikely that Russia and China will consent to a new round of crippling sanctions before negotiations are given another chance,” said Ali Vaez of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based think tank. REUTERSVIENNA: Russia fears a UN report which is expected to heighten suspicions about Iran’s atomic ambitions could undermine Moscow’s initiative to help resolve a nuclear dispute with Tehran, diplomatic sources said yesterday.

Russia’s concern about the timing of the UN report, due next month, contrasts with the hopes of Western states that the document will strengthen their case to step up pressure on the country over its nuclear programme.

Western powers fear Iran is using its nuclear programme to develop weapons. Iran says it needs to refine uranium for a planned network of nuclear power plants. Russia’s concerns may be a sign of differences among the six major powers involved in the search for a solution to the nuclear row — the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — on how to approach the Iran issue. Russia, which has commercial and other links with Iran, has proposed a step-by-step diplomatic effort to defuse the nuclear standoff but Western diplomats have given the plan a cool response. Moscow and Beijing have backed four rounds of UN sanctions on Iran since 2006 over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work that could have both civilian and military uses.

But they criticised the US and the EU last year for taking additional unilateral steps against the major oil producer and it is uncertain whether they would back any new Western sanctions push at the United Nations. “I think it is unlikely that Russia and China will consent to a new round of crippling sanctions before negotiations are given another chance,” said Ali Vaez of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based think tank.