Russia toughens opposition to UN sanctions on Iran

By Alireza Ronaghi

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Hardening its opposition to sanctions
against Iran, Russia said on Friday only proof that the Islamic
Republic was seeking atom bombs could justify consideration of
such measures by the U.N. Security Council.

The council is awaiting a report on April 28 from the
Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on
whether Tehran is meeting its demands for a halt to uranium
enrichment and answers to queries about its nuclear program.

The United States, Britain and France want the Security
Council to weigh sanctions if, as widely expected, IAEA
director Mohamed ElBaradei concludes Iran has not met U.N.
demands.

But Russia made clear that it would not view such
non-compliance on its own as justifying punitive measures.

“We will only be able to talk about sanctions after we have
concrete facts confirming that Iran is not exclusively involved
in peaceful nuclear activities,” Foreign Ministry spokesman
Mikhail Kamynin said, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Iran says its nuclear work aims only to produce
electricity, not bombs. But it has hidden parts of its program
in the past, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has
heightened world concern by saying Israel should be “wiped off
the map.”

Senior cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani told Friday
prayer worshippers ElBaradei and the IAEA had singled out
Iran’s quest for technology, while ignoring a nuclear-armed
Israel.

“Israel has got nuclear warheads and it is proliferating
them constantly and you do not ask them why,” Kashani said.

He also criticized the Security Council for failing to live
up to its name. “You are establishing security for the wolves
and predators rather than for the sheep,” the cleric declared.

Iran had said an IAEA team led by Olli Heinonen, deputy
director-general for nuclear safeguards, would arrive on
Friday, but diplomats said they had been told Heinonen would
not go.

A Vienna-based EU diplomat said Iran had not responded to
requests for more cooperation. There was no point in Heinonen
going to Tehran “if he’s just going to get stonewalled.”

“DEBACLE IN MOSCOW”

The diplomat said it was not clear if any senior aides to
Heinonen would go to Iran as had been expected. A diplomat from
another Western state also said he was informed Heinonen had
canceled. IAEA officials refused to comment.

A diplomat familiar with IAEA dealings with Iran said the
trip had been clouded by what he said was the hard line taken
by Iranian negotiators who met EU officials in Moscow on
Wednesday.

“It was a debacle in Moscow, and the Iranians are acting
empowered,” the diplomat said.

No consensus on sanctions emerged when the council’s five
permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the
United States — plus Germany held talks in Moscow this week.

Iran’s deputy chief nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi met
officials of Britain, France and Germany in Moscow after those
talks, but there was no breakthrough, a British diplomat said.

Vaeedi arrived in Vienna late on Thursday, Iran’s student
news agency ISNA reported. There was no immediate confirmation.

Last week Iran defied U.N. and IAEA demands by announcing
it had enriched uranium to the level needed in power stations
and that it would push for industrial-scale fuel production.

Russia — a veto-holder on the Security Council — has long
argued that sanctions might not persuade Iran to change course,
but it has not before spelled out the level of evidence it
would need to consider such measures.

President Bush, meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao in
Washington on Thursday, did not appear to have persuaded him to
allow tougher steps in the Security Council. Hu repeated
Beijing’s calls for a negotiated solution.

Russia rejected on Friday a U.S. call for it to scrap a
planned missile sale to Iran, a day after rebuffing
Washington’s suggestion that it halt work on Iran’s first
atomic power plant.

“There are no circumstances which would get in the way of
us carrying out our commitments in the field of military
cooperation with Iran,” Nikolai Spassky, deputy head of
Russia’s National Security Council, was quoted by Tass as
saying.

“That includes … our commitment to supply Tor systems to
Iran,” he said, referring to tactical surface-to-air missiles.

Bush has vowed to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons and has
refused to rule out military options if diplomacy fails.

Worries about the nuclear standoff helped drive oil to
record highs this week. Prices fell nearly $1 on Friday on
profit-taking by fund investors, but held above $72 a barrel.

(Additional reporting by Christian Lowe in Moscow and Mark
Heinrich in Vienna)