Iran is less likely to suspend its sensitive nuclear activities if the United States cannot persuade Russia to step up pressure on the Middle Eastern state, the chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 12).
Representative Howard Berman (D-Calif.) told Reuters that the Bush administration has undermined its own effort to focus international scrutiny on Iran's disputed atomic work by angering Moscow with plans to deploy a European missile shield (see GSN, Jan. 13).
"To what extent is one (U.S. policy) offsetting the other?" he said. "What is our priority?"
"To have an effective strategy on Iran, we are going to need Russia as a partner," Berman said. "I do think we need some fundamental course corrections here, and I think the new administration shares that view."
Iran has said it purchased an air-defense system from Moscow that could protect its nuclear sites against air attacks (see GSN, Dec. 16, 2008). Russia is also playing a major role in the construction of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant (Susan Cornwell, Reuters, Jan. 14).
Iran's ambassador in Moscow said Russia would finish work on the Bushehr plant in 2009, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.
"Delays in [the] completion of Iran's first nuclear plant ... are not only Russia's fault," Iranian state media quoted Ambassador Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi as saying. Other nations failed to provide components for the site on schedule, he said.
"Russia has a greater chance [than] other countries" to work on Iran's future nuclear sites, he said.
An Iranian lawmaker said last month that the Bushehr site would begin operating by March of next year (Xinhua News Agency, Jan. 14).