Foreign Minister shows Russian reluctance
In response to deepening concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, Russia’s foreign minister has dismissed possible new sanctions against Tehran as counterproductive. The timing is significant; U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Moscow, in an attempt to win support for tougher measures against Iran, in the case that Iran continues to expand its nuclear program. Clinton was careful, however, to portray new sanctions as a last-ditch measure: “At the same time that we are very vigorously pursuing this [diplomatic] track, we are aware that we might not be as successful as we need to be, so we have always looked at the potential of sanctions in the event we are not successful and cannot assure ourselves and others that Iran has decided not to pursue nuclear weapons,” Clinton announced at a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The talks come at a sensitive time for US-Russia relations. The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) will expire in December, and no plans for a successor agreement have been nailed down. At the same time, U.S. President Barack Obama has promised to “reset” relations between the two countries, which have faltered in recent years. Iran is already subject to three sets of U.N. sanctions—Russia and China have expressed disapproval at the notion of imposing additional ones.