Russia Resists U.S. Position on Sanctions for Iran

Russia Resists U.S. Position on Sanctions for Iran
By MARK LANDLER and CLIFFORD J. LEVY
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 13, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/world/europe/14diplo.html?ref=global-home


MOSCOW —threatening Tehran now with harsh new sanctions to further negotiations over its nuclear program would be “counterproductive,” Russia’s foreign minister said Tuesday, throwing cold water on the Obama administration’s hopes for a powerful ally in the global campaign to pressure Iran.

The minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said after meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton here that diplomacy should be given a chance to work, particularly after a meeting in Geneva earlier this month in which the Iranian government said it would allow United Nations inspectors to visit a clandestine nuclear enrichment facility near the holy city of Qum.

“At the current stage, all forces should be thrown at supporting the negotiating process,” he said. “Threats, sanctions, and threats of pressure in the current situation, we are convinced, would be counterproductive.”

Mr. Lavrov’s skepticism was not new, but his comments came three weeks after President Obama scrapped a antimissile defense system fiercely opposed by Russia, a move that had appeared to open the way for Russian help on Iran.

Two weeks ago, President Dmitri A. Medvedev said that “in some cases, sanctions are inevitable,” a statement that appeared to signal that Russia was coming around to the Obama administration’s view that only diplomacy backed by a credible threat of sanctions could persuade Iran to enter into serious nuclear negotiations

Mrs. Clinton met the Russian president later on Tuesday, and administration officials said he did not shift his position in his private discussions with her. But he said nothing about Iran publicly. Russia’s paramount leader, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who has also been skeptical of sanctions, was in China on a trade mission on Tuesday and did not see Mrs. Clinton.

Based on its public statements, though, it is clear Russia will not even discuss sanctions as long as Iran and Western countries are still in active negotiations about its nuclear program.

Enlisting Russia is critical for the administration because of its strong geopolitical links to Iran. Russia’s refusal to act now may influence another key player, China, which is covetous of Iran’s enormous oil and gas reserves and has also been wary of sanctions. That Mr. Putin was in Beijing cutting deals while Mrs. Clinton was in Moscow warning about Iran was not lost on analysts here.

Though Mrs. Clinton also stressed the importance of diplomacy, she reiterated the administration’s view that there must be a parallel track of sanctions to prevent Iran from dragging its feet in negotiations.

“In the absence of any significant progress,” she said at a joint news conference with Mr. Lavrov, “we will be seeking to rally international opinion behind additional sanctions.”

Mrs. Clinton insisted the United States did not make any specific requests of Russia at the meeting. But a day earlier, a senior official traveling with her said the United States would be looking for “specific forms of pressure” that Russia would be prepared to back.

After the meeting, a senior State Department official said, “They said they were not ready in this context to talk specifically about what steps they were ready to take,” preferring to do so at the United Nations.

The next milestone in the diplomatic process is Oct. 18, when Iran and officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency are to meet to discuss the details of a plan to ship a majority of Iran’s stockpile of lightly-enriched out of the country to be enriched in Russia to a higher grade. The uranium would then be returned to Iran, where it would fuel a research reactor.

That agreement was the most tangible result of the talks in Geneva between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union. A senior American official said that in his meeting with Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Lavrov said Russia was resolved to hold Iran to the deal and would consider sanctions if the Iranian government reneged on it.

Fyodor Lukyanov, editor in chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, said the administration was misguided if it believed that there had been a shift in Russia’s position in recent weeks, noting that Mr. Lavrov was essentially voicing Russia’s longstanding view that sanctions were undesirable.

Mr. Lukyanov said Mr. Medvedev’s comments during his visit to the United States last month represented more of a political gesture than a Russian concession. Mr. Medvedev believed that he had to offer a proper response to Mr. Obama’s decision to cancel an antimissile system in Eastern Europe that Russia staunchly opposed, he said.

“It was not based on a new assessment of an Iranian threat,” he said. “It was just a feeling that Russia had to be polite and react to what Obama did.”

Mr. Lukyanov pointed out that the United States and Russia approach Iran from sharply different perspectives. Russia and Iran are neighbors, and the Kremlin has for many years had positive dealings with Iran on regional issues, including unrest in Chechnya and in Central Asia.

“Iran is seen by Russia as a much more rational and reliable than it is seen by the United States or Israel,” Mr. Lukyanov said.