Rice fails to convince Moscow to admonish Iran

Rice fails to convince Moscow to admonish Iran
MOSCOW - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could not convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to back the United States when it seeks to refer Iran to the United Nations' Security Council in November.

Rice had lengthy albeit hastily arranged meetings with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Putin, but apart from assuring her that they would coax Iran to return to the talking table with the EU, both the leaders were non-committal about the Security Council referral. "We do not agree that this matter should be sent to the Security Council," said Sergey Kislyak, the deputy foreign minister.

This view appeared to be that of the entire Russian polity. The Russians feel that the Iranians "have this right" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium. The US contends that Iran is doing this to build nuclear missiles in a clandestine manner.

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Last month at an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting, the agency voted to refer this matter to the UNSC, but Russia and 11 other nations abstained from voting. At the joint press conference on Saturday, Rice admitted for the first time that the US would probably not push for referral in November, an acknowledgement of the fact that the Americans do not have the requisite votes, "There will be a referral," Rice said, but "we're going to keep the referral option alive at a time of our choosing."

She said that the Russians had not totally rebuffed her concerns and had agreed that Iran was not enjoying the international community's confidence at the moment.

Rice also said that Russia would want to continue to negotiate with Iran, “That's fine, that's what they can do at this point and I hope that they can succeed,” she said. “They prefer to allow negotiations to proceed ... without implying that there is a specific timetable for referral.”