Russia's Position on Iran

Pyotr Goncharov, United Press International:

The "unanimity" displayed by Moscow and Tehran on the eve of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the Russian capital was most opportune. READ MORE

Moscow had called on Iran to show a certain restraint in terms of using its right to develop nuclear technologies, and Iran had obliged by treating these wishes with understanding.

Hussein Musavian, chairman of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council's foreign policy committee, said, during his recent talks in Moscow, Russia had supported Iran's right to develop modern peaceful nuclear technologies. But Moscow had stressed it would be undesirable for Tehran's wish to exercise this right to undermine the current atmosphere of trust between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

"We intend to retain our rights," said Musavian. "However, we also believe maintaining the atmosphere of trust existing between Iran and the IAEA to be essential."

These comments can only mean that Iran will not lift the moratorium on uranium enrichment or withdraw from the negotiating process either at the current Geneva talks with the European Union on the fate of the Iranian "nuclear file" or in the near future.

The statement is highly symbolic, considering that on the eve of the meeting between the Iranian and EU working groups in Switzerland, Sirus Naseri, Iran's senior negotiator on nuclear talks with Europe, said Iran would withdraw from the negotiating process with the EU unless progress was made in this dialogue.

By progress at the talks, Tehran means the EU's unconditional recognition of Iran's right to create a full fuel cycle of its own, in other words, to develop a uranium enrichment program. This demand is completely unacceptable for the EU, considering that the United States is strongly opposed to anything of the kind.

Musavian's statement is also symbolic because it was made literally a few hours before Rice arrived in Moscow.

Russian-Iranian cooperation in the nuclear field has blighted Russian-U.S. relations for years. An agreement on supplies of Russian nuclear fuel to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, signed in Moscow right before Russian President Vladimir Putin met President George W. Bush in Bratislava, Slovakia, was fiercely criticized by many figures within the U.S. president's inner circle. Rice was no exception. No one doubted she would raise the matter in Moscow in a bid to clarify the Kremlin's position in the run-up to the next presidential meeting May 9.

Moscow's position on the Iranian "nuclear file" is fundamentally different from Washington's. It prioritizes the IAEA's role and diplomatic efforts, notably, Tehran's talks with the EU troika: Britain, Germany and France. Moscow has never concealed its belief a perfect solution for all sides would be if Tehran and the IAEA signed an additional protocol giving the agency the right to conduct inspections without prior notification and Iran promised to maintain its uranium enrichment moratorium in the near future.

Musavian's visit to Moscow showed on the one hand, nothing has changed in Russia's position either in Iran's or America's favor, and on the other, that sometimes Tehran is inclined to heed Moscow's wishes, if not recommendations. Many experts are inclined to think Moscow deliberately timed Musavian's arrival in Russia to pre-empt Rice's visit.

All this has a logic of its own. Moscow let the United States understand that it still intends to be guided by its own interests and uphold its own position in nuclear cooperation with Iran, whatever Washington's reaction. Lastly, by declaring its position in advance, Moscow saved Rice the trouble of clarifying some details that may be unpleasant for the United States.

When talking about Iran's nuclear project in Moscow, Rice did not fail to point to the "dubious" nature of Iran's civil nuclear research. This was hardly a surprise. What was genuinely surprising, though, was that she acknowledged that from the standpoint of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, the agreement between Russia and Iran on the supplies of nuclear fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant "promotes the cause.