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Merkel in RussiaGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel is on her first official visit to Russia today. In Moscow, she will meet with President Vladimir Putin to discuss important international issues, including Iran's nuclear programme. Russia supports Iran's plan for uranium enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear power plants. Germany is fiercely opposed to the plans, because they would also allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons. The issue was also on the agenda during Ms Merkel's visit to the US last weekend. The chancellor will meet with human rights organisations after a dinner with the Russian president. The European Union has taken offence to Russia's recent introduction of a law seriously limiting the freedom of movement of non-governmental organisations. Russia's attitude is important to efforts by Germany, France and Britain, backed by the United States, to persuade Iran to permanently give up efforts to produce enriched uranium, which can be used for fuel or weapons depending on the level of enrichment. The three European governments have called for the International Atomic Energy Agency to bring Iran before the United Nations Security Council. Those efforts will need the support of Russia, which sits on the IAEA board and remains one of the veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council. But German officials briefing reporters on condition of anonymity said Merkel would not focus narrowly on Iran or on Russian-German natural gas deals, such as the Baltic Sea pipeline project sealed by her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder before she took office Nov. 22. Instead, she wanted to widen relations with Russia to include a "broad spectrum" of issues, risking topics the Kremlin was likely to be less enthusiastic about, such as human rights and a new law restricting non-governmental organizations that awaits Putin's signature, they said. Merkel was scheduled to spend just under six hours in Moscow, with talks with Putin to be followed by a meeting with representatives of Russian religious, social and business groups. Among those invited were leaders of human rights organizations, such as the Moscow Helsinki Group, which charges that Russia has become less democratic under Putin. Merkel has described the Russian language as having been one of her favourite subjects in school, and during her campaign she vowed to maintain Germany's strategic partnership with Moscow. But many think the 51-year-old former scientist will take a more sober view of Russia, in part as a result of her upbringing behind the Iron Curtain in communist East Germany. That would contrast with the camaraderie displayed by Schroeder and Putin, which resulted in the Baltic pipeline that is intended to feed Germany's growing appetite for natural gas to heat homes and run factories. Russia supplies roughly a third of Germany's natural gas from giant gas fields in the Arctic, and the importance of the gas relationship was underscored when Schroeder took a job with the pipeline consortium after leaving office. Schroeder's critics at home said he failed to push for more democratic change in Russia. And the close Schroeder-Putin relationship led to criticism from countries such as Poland that escaped Moscow's domination at the end of the Cold War and feared their interests were being slighted by their two larger neighbours. from AFP in Vienna
West seeking Russian and Chinese help against Iran's nuclear program The West wants Russia and China to sign on to a hard line against Iran's nuclear program but the most expected at a meeting in London would be agreeing on a special session of the UN's atomic agency. Representatives of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States were expected in London on Monday to set a date for an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors, which could refer iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions. Maybe they will decide on a special (IAEA) board meeting but I'm not sure they will specify that this is to take the issue to the UN Security Council," a European diplomat told AFP, stressing the extreme delicacy of the negotiations. Another diplomat close to the talks said US undersecretary of State for political affairs Nicholas Burns will be telling key Iranian ally Russia at the London meeting that "the best way of avoiding eventual international action from hurting Russian interests is for Moscow to pretend that it is on-board for sanctions." "It's kind of like playing poker. The Iranians have to believe they will be sanctioned," the diplomat, who asked not to be named, said. But diplomats said that if the matter does go to the Security Council, the first step would be a statement urging Iran to honour current IAEA demands that it cease nuclear fuel activities and return to negotiations on guaranteeing that its atomic program is peaceful. A second stage would be a resolution "invoking Chapter 7 (of the UN charter)" which gives the United Nations the "legal authority to require member states" to take actions against Iran, a diplomat said. Targeted sanctions "only on Iran's nuclear program" and travel by its leaders would be a third step, with "wider economic sanctions" being a fourth step, the diplomat said. But this diplomat and others stressed that Russia, which has a veto on the Security Council, was at this point not ready for any Council action, having only agreed so far not to block IAEA referral of the Iranian issue to the Council. Britain, France and Germany, which led drawn-out negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, said last week the talks were dead and called for UN referral after Tehran broke IAEA seals at three nuclear plants to resume uranium enrichment research. Enriched uranium can fuel nuclear reactors, but if highly enriched it can also form the explosive core of an atomic bomb. The United States alleges that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at building a nuclear weapon, a charge that Tehran has repeatedly denied. |
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