The Ruskies, Iran, ADA, Etc…

Russia toughens opposition to Iran sanctions

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Hardening its opposition to sanctions against Iran, Russia said on Friday the UN Security Council should only consider such measures if it had proof the Islamic Republic was trying to build nuclear weapons.

The council is awaiting a report on April 28 from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on whether Tehran is meeting its demands for a halt to uranium enrichment and answers to queries about its nuclear program.

The United States, Britain and France want the Security Council to weigh sanctions if, as widely expected, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei concludes Iran has not met U.N. demands.

But Russia made clear it would not view such non-compliance on its own as warranting punitive steps against Tehran.

“We will only be able to talk about sanctions after we have concrete facts confirming that Iran is not exclusively involved in peaceful nuclear activities,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Iran insists on a legal right to enrich uranium for civilian nuclear energy and denies any secret bomb-building agenda. The IAEA has found no hard evidence Iran is after atomic weaponry.

But Iran has covered up parts of its nuclear program in the past, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has heightened world concern by saying Israel should be “wiped off the map.”

Senior cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani told Friday prayer worshippers ElBaradei and the IAEA had singled out Iran’s quest for technology, while ignoring a nuclear-armed Israel.

“Israel has got nuclear warheads and it is proliferating them constantly and you do not ask them why,” Kashani said.

He also accused the Security Council of failing to live up to its name. “You are establishing security for the wolves and predators rather than for the sheep,” the cleric declared.

Iran had said an IAEA team led by Olli Heinonen, deputy director-general for nuclear safeguards, would arrive on Friday, but diplomats said they had been told Heinonen would not go.

A Vienna-based EU diplomat said Iran had not responded to requests for more cooperation. There was no point in Heinonen going to Tehran “if he’s just going to get stonewalled.”

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Russia rejected on Friday a U.S. call for it to scrap a planned missile sale to Iran, a day after rebuffing Washington’s suggestion that it halt work on Iran’s first atomic power plant.

“There are no circumstances which would get in the way of us carrying out our commitments in the field of military cooperation with Iran,” Nikolai Spassky, deputy head of Russia’s National Security Council, was quoted by Tass as saying.

Looks like those Tor-1s are going to get sold after all.

If Russia had sided with us on this issue, China probably would have as well –not wanting to appear to be the lone world power standing behind Tehran. Now it seems that China has an excuse to side with Russia, and the WMD evidence must be found and presented (by the US or the West, but certainly no onus will be on Iran to prove it has no WMD program…) in order for any action to be legitimate according to them.

Also, this quote leapt out at me:

“Israel has got nuclear warheads and it is proliferating them constantly and you do not ask them why,” Kashani said.

There aren’t enough hours in the day to counter all of the lies and agitprop coming out of the Iranian regime. How, exactly, is Israel proliferating warheads? Who are they giving them too? Is the Irgun carrying out covert nuke strikes on Iran and somehow we missed it? Last time I checked it was the Iranians who violated the NPT. This is lunacy. As for the WMD hunt, the Iranians frequently site Israeli nuclear weaponry as a justification for their “civilian” program. If they want to argue sovereignty and self determination, fine –but when they argue balance of power in the region, its obvious they are trying to match Israel’s weapons program with their own weapons program. Its only a matter of time before Amadenijad or one of the mullahs slips up and says what they mean: “we are acquiring nukes!”