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Punishing with Iran
// Sergey Lavrov and Condoleezza Rice managed not to squabble
Yesterday Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice met for the first time after the Russia-Georgian war in New York. Ahead of the talks Ms Rice states that Russia may find itself in isolation; Mr Lavrov said Russia felt no isolation. He also announced he won’t come to the meeting the Six Powers meeting on Iran, where six Foreign Office Chiefs planned to discuss new sanctions against Teheran.
“There was not table-pounding histrionics”
State Department officials, who prepared the meeting of Sergey Lavrov and Condoleezza Rice truly feared that the negotiations might turn into a real scandal. According to a source of Kommersant, setting off for the luxurious hotel Waldorf Astoria, American diplomats considered various scenarios and tones of the conversation. Perhaps it was the reason why as soon as she saw her Russian counterpart, Condoleezza Rice tried to make the press leave the room. “Let’s shake hands, and they will leave immediately,” U.S. State Secretary asked Sergey Lavrov as he stepped in deliberately ignoring a question about Georgia. “Do you believe they will be satisfied with it?” Sergey Lavrov asked. “I don’t know, let’s just try,” Condoleezza Rice smiled.
By the time the talks started it was known what surprise the Russian delegation prepared for Condoleezza Rice. The U.S. intended to hold a meeting on Iran during the UN General assembly session at the Foreign Ministers’ level to decide on imposing new sanctions against that country. All formal procedures were completed – IAEA has lately sated that Teheran cooperated with it insufficiently. And so, the ministers were to thrash out all the details before introducing the issue into the UN Security Council.
But Russia offered an unexpected impediment. MFA Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said that Sergey Lavrov won’t take part in the meeting because the time is not suited for it now – the Minister’s time-table was full, and since the negotiations of the ministers was not planned in advance, Sergey Lavrov won’t be able to find time. Later chief of Russia’s diplomacy revealed the true motives of his action saying that he won’t let the U.S. punish Russia and cooperate with it over Iran simultaneously.
As to diplomatic protocol, there was no fault to be found. Wednesday night, Condoleezza Rice, hiding her irritation, had to explain in her interview with CNBC that she agrees “with the Russians that the time is not right for a ministers meeting.” “We said we think you’re right; let’s wait and do it when the meeting is prepared.” “And is your patience endless here? I believe we learned that Russia opposes this meeting of the six powers to talk sanctions about Iran, which I assume we support sanctions,” CNBC’s Steve Leisman wondered. In response, Condoleezza Rice had to say smiling that there was nothing bad in canceling the ministerial meeting and it will be surely held when everything is ready for it. Also, secretary Rice noted, the Russian Government has always claimed it did not wish Iran possessed nuclear weapons.
Apparently, the state Department preferred not to exaggerate the scandal hoping to persuade Moscow to hold the meeting on Iran and decide on sanctions. After Condoleezza Rice and Sergey Lavrov’s negotiations, Assistant Secretary Daniel Fried pointed out gladly that the negotiations of the six Foreign Ministers will be held after all. However, he could not name the exact date. But he told the press that the conversation between Sergey Lavrov and Condoleezza Rice was “harsh but polite”. “They discussed Georgia, and this was a – I would call it a polite, thorough exchange of views where the disagreements were quite clear. And again, this was – there was not shouting, table-pounding histrionics. These – the two ministers are professionals, they know each other well. Secretary Rice’s point is that the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was a mistake,” Mr Fried reported.
“Not a very comfortable place to be”
However, Condoleezza Rice had already told CNBC on Wednesday night what she was going to tell Sergey Lavrov. “And for a country whose new president has said that he understood that Russia’s future really rested in integration into the international community, that Russia doesn’t want to be just an energy supplier for the world, it wants to be a country that draws on its brainpower, that Russia is never going to succeed trying to be 19th century Russia that beats up on small neighbors,” she said adding, “They have recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, these breakaway regions, and their diplomatic company is Hamas and Nicaragua. That’s hardly a diplomatic triumph.”
Asking a question whether the U.S. has sufficient leverage to influence Russia, Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that because of the high oil prices there was little the U.S. could do. She also stated that Washington may block Russia’s WTO and OECD membership and will do it. Finally, according to her, neither the U.S. nor Russia wants the latter to be in international isolation. “Russia has one foot in the international system, the integration, and one foot out. That’s actually not a very comfortable place to be.” Condoleezza Rice appeared perplexed only once as Steve Leisman asked whether she, an expert on Russia, and the Bush administration as a whole underestimated Vladimir Putin. “I believe that the Administration and the President did everything that we could to open a path for a 21st century Russia, a path of integration, a path of active engagement with the international community, and that some things succeeded. The President has reached out a hand of friendship to the Russians. We’ve sometimes ignored Russian rhetoric that was very harsh. But I think it was the right choice,” Secretary Rice replied.
As he spoke at the dinner organized by the “Council on Foreign Relations” analytical center, Sergey Lavrov responded in detail to Condoleezza Rice. In his address he stated that he didn’t feel isolated, on the contrary, “I have never received so many requests to meet as here, during the UN General assembly session. The world has keen interest in Russia’s opinion.” Also, he said that both Russia and the U.S. should acknowledge that they will never be able to agree on all issues, “We should be pragmatics, we won’t decide on everything. Of course, we discussed urgent disputed matters, including the situation in the Caucasus. But we agreed that the situation must not turn into a rock everything else would break against.”
The Russian Minister assured the political analysts who gathered in the hall that Russia is not going to terminate its cooperation with the U.S. in all areas because of the situation in Georgia. “It would be irresponsible to let the developments in the Caucasus influence the cooperation between Russia and the U.S. including the settling the issues of Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programs.”
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LDCs used the podium of the UN General Assembly to lash out at the U.S. Washington was accused of the world economic crisis. According Cuban Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura, the U.S. is to blame for the high oil prices. “The growth of oil prices is caused by irrational consumption, speculation and imperial wars the U.S. wages,” he emphasized. According to him, instead of searching for alternative sources of energy, Washington “promotes its criminal strategy of producing fuel from cereals”. Speakers from several African and Asian countries as well as from Latin America noted that at the times of the food crisis producing fuel from cereals can tell on those starving.
The U.S. plans to allocate $700 billion for the banking system were also criticized by the leaders of some states. “A third of this sum would be enough to overcome poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America,” Manuel Zelaya of Honduras stated. Commenting on the U.S. mortgage crisis, Paraguay’s President Fernando Lugo called it “immoral speculation”. Chile’s president Michelle Bachelet said that the money allocated to save the banking system could help solve the problem of starvation in the whole world.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 26, 2008
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