Russian Leader Meets With Ahmadinejad
Historic visit followed by President Bush's 'World War III' remark
(Oct. 19, 2007) – Amid mounting tension between Western powers and Iran’s perceived pursuit of nuclear warfare, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran earlier this week, the first time a Kremlin leader visits the Islamic Republic since 1943.
Putin used his meeting with the controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the international media it attracted, to express his obvious disapproval of U.S. foreign policy related to Iran.
“Direct dialogue with the leaders of states around which certain problems accumulate is always more productive and is the shortest path to success, rather than a policy of threats, sanctions, and all the more so a resolution to use force,” he said, according to Reuters, after returning to Moscow.Although Iran continues to claim its pursuit of nuclear power is for peaceful purposes only, Western powers disbelieve the Islamic Republic and have led the U.N. through two rounds of sanctions against Iran.
During his visit Putin invited Ahmadinejad to Moscow for more talks.
Russia is in the process of an $800 million building project to construct Iran’s first nuclear reactor in Bushehr, a city in southwestern Iran on the Persian Gulf coast, according to the Washington-based public policy group globalsecurity.org.
Putin also criticized the U.S. for its involvement in Iraq. “Thank God Russia is not Iraq,” he said in Moscow. “[Russia] is strong enough to protect its interests within the national territory and, by the way, in other regions of the world.”
Asked if he was aware of supposed U.S. intentions of accessing Russia’s resource-rich interior, Putin responded such ideas were a sort of “political eroticism” and pointed to Iraq as “the best example” of it, Reuters reported.
Immediately following his visit to Tehran, Putin welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Moscow to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, reported Reuters. “We know how much you are worried by the situation about Iran’s nuclear program. I am ready to share with you the results of my visit to Tehran,” Putin said.
While Olmert met with Putin, Israeli President Shimon Peres told reporters in Jerusalem that Iran is “building a nuclear bomb despite all their denials,” Reuters reported. “The evidence is clear because no country would spend millions and millions of dollars to build long-range missiles that can carry conventional weapons—it doesn’t make sense,” he said.
“The strength of Iran is in the division in the international community,” Peres said.
Meanwhile, President Bush warned this week that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to “World War III,” reported The New York Times. “We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel,” Bush said.
The U.S. president added that he had “told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino later told reporters that Bush’s “World War III” remark was used only as a “rhetorical point” and that the president was not making any war plans or declarations, he was only making a point.
“And the point is,” she said, “that we do not believe and neither does the international community believe that Iran should be allowed to pursue nuclear weapons.”
Previous Posts
The content found on this Web site may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or redistributed without the expressed permission of the publisher. For rights and permissions, please email charisma@strang.com.
