A POTENTIAL breakthrough in the nuclear stand-off with Iran came last night when the Iranian ambassador in Moscow praised a proposal to move Tehran's uranium enrichment programme to Russia.Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said last night that his position is "very close" to that of the United States and Britain. And it appeared that he could hold the key to a resolution when Iran's ambassador to Russia, Gholamreza Ansari, welcomed an offer to move the Iranian uranium enrichment programme to Russia.
Such a move would mean Iran, which is developing a missile which could reach Israel, could not acquire enough material for a bomb. "As far as Russia's proposal is concerned, we consider it constructive and are carefully studying it. This is a good initiative to resolve the situation. We believe that Iran and Russia should find a way out of this jointly," said Mr Ansari.
Mr Putin emerged from separate talks with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, saying he was treating the situation with caution - but he in no way condoned Iran's decision to break the seals from its uranium enhancement plants a fortnight ago. "We need to move very carefully in this area. I personally do not allow myself a single careless announcement and do not allow the foreign ministry to make a single uncertain step," Mr Putin said. "We must work on the Iranian problem very carefully, not allowing abrupt, erroneous steps."
| This just allows the dance to continue. It doesn't solve the basic problem -- Iran wants nuclear weapons so that it can own nuclear-tipped intercontinental and intermediate-range missiles. Whether it's to obliterate Israel, push its neighbors around or insulate itself from Western pressure, it's just unacceptable. If what Putin is doing is giving himself a fig leaf for future use -- "they rejected our reasonable proposal, so now we are forced to vote against Iran in the Security Council" -- well and good. But I suspect it's being done so that when the US/UK says this is unacceptable, he can then block UNSC action. |