Andrei Nesterenko, Russian foreign ministry spokesman.The leading powers were forced to cancel a meeting due to be held on Wednesday on the Iranian nuclear threat after Russia said the talks were not urgent, in a further sign of Moscow’s frostier relations with the west after the Georgia crisis.
Foreign ministers from the US, China, Russia, France and the UK – the five permanent, veto-holding members of the United Nations Security Council – and Germany were due to meet to discuss further sanctions aimed at reining in Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The cancellation came on the eve of a meeting on Wednesday between Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister – their first since Washington came out forcefully against Russian military intervention in Georgia last month.
Western members of the “3 plus 3 group” had hoped to set out the framework for a fourth set of UN sanctions to force Iran to comply with demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.
But Andrei Nesterenko, Russian foreign ministry spokesman, said on Tuesday night: “We see no fire alarm which would require us to put off other things in the extremely busy week of the UN General Assembly.”
Western diplomats had feared that a united front on Iran might be the first casualty of splits within the Security Council, which have been exacerbated by the Georgia crisis.
A senior British official said on Wednesday: “It is in Russia’s strategic interests that pressure is put on Iran over its nuclear plans, so it’s not clever to have sent the Iranians this signal.”
However, diplomats said the cancellation of Wednesday’s meeting did not necessarily mean Russia was abandoning the strategy of incremental pressure on Tehran. A meeting on the margins of the General Assembly at some level was still possible, they said.
“I hope and expect that this is not the end of the 3 plus 3 group’s efforts,” said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German foreign minister.
He also suggested that the Russian rebuff might be a response to Washington’s opposition to a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised nations on the margins of the General Assembly, which would have included Moscow.
In a tough speech last week, Ms Rice accused Russia of being “increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad”.
George W. Bush, in his final speech as US president to the world body on Tuesday, said Moscow’s intervention in Georgia was a violation of the terms of the UN’s charter. The prospect of division in the Security Council over Iran might encourage Tehran to maintain its defiance in the face of international demands.
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s president, used his address to the General Assembly in New York on Tuesday to declare that the “atomic age is over” and that Iran had provided all the information it could on its nuclear programme.
Iran could not prove a negative in the face of western-led accusations that its peaceful nuclear programme was geared towards producing a bomb, Mr AhmadiNejad said.
He added that the campaign against Iran was orchestrated by the US and western allies who dominated the Security Council.
“If we had any complaints against the US, who would we turn to?” he asked a press conference. “The Security Council, on which the US has a veto?” (source)
Western members of the “3 plus 3 group” had hoped to set out the framework for a fourth set of UN sanctions to force Iran to comply with demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.
But Andrei Nesterenko, Russian foreign ministry spokesman, said on Tuesday night: “We see no fire alarm which would require us to put off other things in the extremely busy week of the UN General Assembly.”
Western diplomats had feared that a united front on Iran might be the first casualty of splits within the Security Council, which have been exacerbated by the Georgia crisis.
A senior British official said on Wednesday: “It is in Russia’s strategic interests that pressure is put on Iran over its nuclear plans, so it’s not clever to have sent the Iranians this signal.”
However, diplomats said the cancellation of Wednesday’s meeting did not necessarily mean Russia was abandoning the strategy of incremental pressure on Tehran. A meeting on the margins of the General Assembly at some level was still possible, they said.
“I hope and expect that this is not the end of the 3 plus 3 group’s efforts,” said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German foreign minister.
He also suggested that the Russian rebuff might be a response to Washington’s opposition to a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised nations on the margins of the General Assembly, which would have included Moscow.
In a tough speech last week, Ms Rice accused Russia of being “increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad”.
George W. Bush, in his final speech as US president to the world body on Tuesday, said Moscow’s intervention in Georgia was a violation of the terms of the UN’s charter. The prospect of division in the Security Council over Iran might encourage Tehran to maintain its defiance in the face of international demands.
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s president, used his address to the General Assembly in New York on Tuesday to declare that the “atomic age is over” and that Iran had provided all the information it could on its nuclear programme.
Iran could not prove a negative in the face of western-led accusations that its peaceful nuclear programme was geared towards producing a bomb, Mr AhmadiNejad said.
He added that the campaign against Iran was orchestrated by the US and western allies who dominated the Security Council.
“If we had any complaints against the US, who would we turn to?” he asked a press conference. “The Security Council, on which the US has a veto?” (source)
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