MOSCOW, May 25, (Agencies): Russia’s reputation will be hurt if it fails to fulfill a contract to deliver S-300 advanced air defence missiles to Iran, Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow said Tuesday, quoted by Russian news agencies.
“Refusal to deliver the S-300s will strike a blow to Russia’s reputation as a reliable arms supplier,” Mahmoud Reza Sadjadi was quoted as saying. “It would compel us to question Russia’s reliability at such sensitive moments.”
Iran’s desire to acquire the S-300 surface-to-air missiles, which the West fears will help it guard against possible future air strikes, is at the heart of the crisis over the Iranian nuclear drive.
Russia has agreed the sale of the S-300s with Tehran but delayed delivery amid pressure from Israel and the United States — neither of which have ruled out military force in the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme.
“We strongly hope the Russian government will fulfill its obligations,” the Iranian diplomat said in Moscow. “It would be irrational for Russia not to abide by its commitments.”
The comments came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad voiced disappointment in Russia, which has long enjoyed close ties with Tehran, for its backing of a new round of UN Security Council sanctions.
Western diplomats have said Russia would be unable to deliver the S-300 missiles under the new sanctions resolution being discussed.
But top Russian lawmakers have said the sanctions would have no effect on the S-300 sale as the contract has already been agreed.
The United States last week lifted sanctions against three Russian firms implicated in boosting Iran’s nuclear programme, commending Moscow’s “good example” in suspending supply of the S-300s.
The United States and its allies accuse Tehran of using its civilian nuclear drive as a cover for aims to build an atomic bomb, charges denied by the Islamic republic.
Russia, meanwhile, is helping Iran build its first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr which is expected to finally go online in August.
Ploy
Western powers said on Tuesday Iran’s continued stockpiling of enriched uranium devalued its deal to give up some of its potential nuclear bomb material, signalling Tehran would not evade more sanctions this way.
Under the deal agreed with Turkey and Brazil last week, Iran would send 1.2 tonnes of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey for safekeeping until Tehran received specially processed fuel for its medical isotope reactor around a year later.
But Western critics said the accord, echoing one brokered by the UN nuclear watchdog in October involving the same amount of LEU, would still leave Iran with enough material for one bomb, if enriched to high purity, since it is estimated to have almost doubled its LEU reserve with daily enrichment since then.
The United States, France and Russia — parties to the original deal in principle — saw it as a way to divest Iran of enough LEU to prevent covert “weaponisation”, while giving Iran the means to maintain care for some 850,000 cancer patients.
But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Iran’s gesture, six months after it backed away from the accord, as a “transparent ploy to avoid (UN) Security Council action” to pass a fourth Iran sanctions resolution now on the table.
Clinton, speaking after talks with Chinese leaders in Beijing, and French officials said Iran’s launch of higher-level enrichment in February seemed to eclipse any fuel swap deal.
“We discussed at some length (with the Chinese) the shortcomings of the recent proposal put forward by Iran ... There are a number of deficiencies with it that do not answer the concerns of the international community,” Clinton said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said that even if Iran followed through on the deal, it would still retain half of its LEU reserve — sufficient for one nuclear warhead.
“I believe it is time to ratchet up that pressure, and the timetable is short. This government has a clear objective to ensure stronger UN and EU sanctions against Iran,” Cameron said during parliamentary debate in London on Tuesday.
France’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said Iran’s extended uranium enrichment activities were problematic for its proposal, conveyed on Monday to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which passed it on to Paris, Washington and Moscow.
Iran’s simultaneous reiteration that it would not rein in enrichment in any way, defying a series of resolutions by the IAEA and Security Council, “is being taken into account and it’s part of the problem,” spokesman Bernard Valero said.
“At the time (of the October deal) we were talking about 1,200 kilogrammes and now the stockpile must be around 2-2,400 kilogrammes,” Valero said. “There’s a bit of a difference between the two and that is also part of the problem.”
Influence
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for the United Arab Emirates to exert its influence to encourage a nuclear-free Iran and held talks on Middle East peace efforts.
“When we look at the regional situation and the situation of the UAE, we can see how strong the interest for a peaceful solution in the Near East is, but also for an Iran that does not look for nuclear weapons,” she told reporters.
“Gulf countries and in particular the UAE play an important role in the peace process in the Middle East and of course in relation with Iran,” which faces new UN sanctions over its nuclear programme, the German leader said.
Germany’s secretary of state for the economy, Bernd Pfaffenbach, told AFP that Iran figured prominently in a meeting between Merkel and the Emirati president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan.
The UAE has influence in the region that Germany hopes Abu Dhabi will use to encourage Iran to abandon its controversial nuclear programme, he said.
“We are strongly supporting the United Nations and we also hope very much that Iran will change course” and abandon its defiance of UN resolutions to halt uranium enrichment, he said.
“If that happens, there is a good chance that this will lead to a rapprochement,” said Pfaffenbach. Otherwise, “we will support the sanctions that the UN are deciding.”
Merkel arrived on Monday in the Emirati capital at the start of a four-nation tour of Arab states neighbouring Iran in the Gulf. She was to travel on to Saudi Arabia later on Tuesday.
Released
Celebrated Iranian film director Jafar Panahi, who has been in custody since March, was released on bail on Tuesday, the Tehran prosecutor’s office said in a statement carried by the Fars news agency, but his wife denied he was yet free.
“Jafar Panahi was released from Tehran’s Evin prison on Tuesday after posting bail of two billion rials (around $200,000),” the news agency quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying.
The film-maker’s wife, Tahereh Saeedi, confirmed that she had posted bail for her husband but insisted he remained in custody.
“No he has not been freed — I know better — but I have deposited the bail,” Saeedi told AFP.
The prosecutor’s office said that Panahi’s case file and the charges against him had now been sent to the revolutionary court, which deals with security offences.
It did not detail what the charges were.
On Monday, Tehran public prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi announced that Panahi had been granted bail.
“It has been decided that he will be released on bail,” Dolatabadi was quoted as saying. He added that he had met Panahi in Evin prison on Thursday.
“During the meeting, his request to be released until the trial was examined and accepted,” the prosecutor said.
A vocal backer of Iran’s opposition movement, Panahi, 49, was arrested at his home on March 1 along with 16 other people, including his wife and daughter. Most were subsequently released.
Culture Minister Mohammad Hosseini said in April that Panahi was detained for making an “anti-regime” film about the unrest that rocked Iran after last year’s disputed re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
However, soon after his arrest, Dolatabadi said Panahi was not arrested for political reasons or because he was an artist. He was “accused of some crimes and arrested with another person following an order by a judge.”
News of his imminent release on bail came after reports he had started a hunger strike in protest at the conditions of his detention.
Panahi is known for his gritty, socially critical movies such as the “Circle,” which bagged the 2000 Venice Golden Lion award, “Crimson Gold,” and “Offside,” winner of the 2006 Silver Bear at the Berlin film festival.