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Ballistic Diplomacy in Action in Iran
// Igor and Sergey Ivanov protect Iran from the United States
Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Igor Ivanov arrived in Tehran Saturday evening for closed negotiations with head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani. Diplomatic sources say that Ivanov was sent to convince Larijani not to add to the nuclear crisis and to accept the new package of initiatives to exchange for giving up its uranium enrichment. The success of Ivanov's “good cop” mission will be seen when the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany meet again later this week.
This meeting comes after Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov confirmed that Russia would fulfill its contract with Tehran for the delivery of Russian Top-M1 ballistic missile complexes in spite of U.S. objections. Moscow has thus made efforts again to confirm its “special relationship” with Iran and to take the initiative away from the more bellicose. Moscow says that there are new bases for a diplomatic solution to the conflict now, including progress achieved at the last meeting between the Security Council members and Germany in London last week. Chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said that there are encouraging signs that the United States would not try to pass a harsh resolution in the Security Council. “There is hope that the dialog may continue,” he said. “Any other option is beset with unpredictable consequences.”
Tehran has softened its rhetoric as well, after a series of especially militant statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranian UN representative Javad Zarif said on Friday that “Iran is prepared to consider and accept proposals for the foundation of a consortium with the participation of various countries, including the U.S., for joint ownership and management of its nuclear facilities.” He added that “Iran does not intend to split plutonium and is ready to agree to the establishment of a ceiling on the degree of enrichment of uranium at the level of reactor fuel. Iran is also prepared to take other measures to guarantee that the nuclear fuel that we produce will not be subject to secondary enrichment and will be used only as fuel and not for any other purposes.”
No agreements from the negotiations between Igor Ivanov and Larijani were announced. The meeting of the UN Security Council permanent members and Germany this week should how convincing Russia can be with its special partner, however.
Sergey Strokan
All the Article in Russian as of May 29, 2006
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