Exercises Worry Russia
// Moscow Concerned about Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant Site
Russia has reacted more tensely than even the United States to recent statements from Iran announcing the beginning of industrial-scale uranium enrichment and the country's possible exit from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Yesterday the Russian Foreign Ministry sent an urgent request to the IAEA to investigate the basis for Tehran's claims. In addition, Russian concerns are growing about the Bushehr nuclear power plant, where on April 6 Iran held military exercises without giving advance warning to Atomstroiexport personnel at the site. Moscow fears that Russian workers may be held hostage at the plant in the event that the US decides to use Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments as a pretext to attack Iran.
Despite expectations to the contrary, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's provocative statements yesterday did not attract a noisy response from the United States. The White House expressed its usual "extreme concern" and called on Tehran to fulfill its obligations before the IAEA and the UN Security Council. "Iran is continuing to ignore the international community and is increasingly isolating itself by expanding its nuclear program instead of suspending work on the enrichment of uranium," said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. The US State Department called the Iranian move another challenge to the international community. According to US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, Tehran's actions show that neither the UN Security Council or the IAEA can believe Iran when it says that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Moscow is also seriously concerned, although Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov immediately attempted to smooth the waters: "Of course, we heard the Iranian president's statements and we take everything that is going on with the Iranian nuclear program seriously," he said, adding, "but we want to rely on facts, not on emotional political gestures. So far we have no confirmation that practical enrichment in new cascades has begun."
The Russian position was further clarified later by Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin. "We are obliged to note that many statements have been made recently in Iran regarding the country's intentions that cannot be seen as reflecting readiness on the part of its leadership to strengthen cooperation with the IAEA and to fulfill the decisions of the UN Security Council," said Mr. Kamynin. "Particular concern is raised by the Islamic Republic of Iran's threat to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty."
At the same time, the situation involving the nuclear power plant being built for Iran by Russia at Bushehr is worsening. At 5 o'clock in the morning on April 6, Iranian soldiers staged target practice not far from the construction site of the Bushehr plant and the residential area where Russian specialists working at the site live with their families, said Sergei Novikov, the press secretary for Rosatom head Sergei Kirienko. Mr. Kirienko called the Iranian military's actions impermissible and appealed to the Russian Foreign Ministry to get to the bottom of the situation "so as to not cause unnecessary stress among the Russian employees of Atomstroiexport who are building the Bushehr plant," explained a Kommersant source in Rosatom.
Atomstroiexport deputy general director Evgeny Reshetnikov told Kommersant that the company's personnel who are working at the Bushehr site are taking the matter in stride. "Nothing unusual happened, well, they shot a little. They have staged similar exercises before, but this time they were shooting closer to the site," he explained. According to Mr. Reshetnikov, the company is not considering evacuating people from the site. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry has already approached its Iranian counterpart to ask for an explanation. "We believe that the Russian side should be informed in the future about such exercises involving the use of artillery," said Mr. Novikov.
The day before the exercises, the living quarters of the Russian atomic engineers were visited by a commission from the Russian Emergencies Ministry as part of a "planned inspection" of the readiness of the specialists working on the plant to deal with an emergency. Kommersant has learned that the Russian authorities are most concerned about the situation in Bushehr in the eventuality that the Bushehr plant could become a target for American military strikes against Iran and that the Russian engineers at the site could be taken hostage: in the event of an armed conflict, Iran is likely to insist that Atomstroirexport not evacuate its personnel.
Officials in the Russian Foreign Ministry are still insisting that there is no information regarding changes in the actual situation of the Iranian nuclear program, but they clearly already believe that the likelihood of a conflict is significant. Moscow apparently fears that the Iranian president's remarks on Monday will be sufficient to provoke Washington into a military campaign against the Islamic Republic without any approval from the UN Security Council. According to Russian intelligence services, the Pentagon has already basically closed its pincers around Iran in preparation for the launch of a powerful missile strike on Iranian territory.
Alexander Reutov and Elena Kornysheva
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 11, 2007
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