IGNORING WASHINGTON’S WARNINGS, IRAN AND RUSSIA SIGN NEW ARMS DEAL
MOSCOW-WASHINGTON 15 Mar. (IPS) As Iranians and Russians inked Wednesday a new arms contracts, Washington renewed sanctions on the Islamic Republic and at the same time warned Moscow on military and nuclear co-operation with Tehran.
The new arms deal was discussed between Iranian Defence Minister Admiral Ali
Shamkhani and his Russian counterpart Igor Sergeyev, according to the independent Russian news agency Interfax, quoting Russian Defence ministry officials as saying that the two ministers also discussed the expansion of the bilateral military co-operation in the Central Asian region.Interfax had earlier said that Russia plans to sell more than 570 T72-C tanks
and some 1,000 armoured vehicles to Iran based on a contract signed before
Moscow froze arms sales to Iran in a 1995 secret agreement with Washington.
Quoting Russian defence ministry sources, the agency also said the Russian
government also plans to provide parts and components for Soviet-made MiG-29
and Sukhoi-24MK fighters used by the Iranian military.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said Monday that Iran is interested in acquiring Russia's advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, Interfax said as Iranian military officers accompanying Mr. Khatami expressed interest in buying Russia's latest generation of anti-aircraft and missile defence systems, the Tor-M1, and was given a demonstration of the weapons.
These short-range missiles mounted on a mobile platform are designed to be deployed alongside land forces or to protect sensitive locations, according to military experts.
Meanwhile, Russian and Iranians rejected Washington’s Tuesday warnings on arms and nuclear collaboration between Iran and Russia.
As President Khatami began his visit to Moscow on Monday, President Vladimir Putin set the tone by saying Russia would proceed with sales of conventional arms to Iran and finishes building a nuclear power plant. He said arms supplied would be strictly defensive.
The United States on Monday urged Russia not to provide Iran with advanced conventional weapons or sensitive military technologies when it resumes its controversial arms sales.
Iran on Wednesday sharply dismissed as "one-sided" and "in contravention of international norms and regulations" the renewal of U.S. ban on trade and investment with Iran by the incumbent President George W. Bush.
"Given the failed policies the U.S. government has thus far adopted, it should keep away from behaviours which are in contravention of international norms and regulations", foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi told the official news agency IRNA.
"Such hostile policies of trade ban against the Islamic Republic are doomed to failure", the Iraqi-born Asefi assured.
President Bush on Tuesday renewed a ban on U.S. trade and investment with Iran, pending a review of policy toward the Islamic Republic.
Bush said in the order renewing the sanctions that he was taking the step "because the actions and policies of the government of Iran continue to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States".
He also repeated Washington’s earlier accusations of supporting international terrorism, seeking to produce weapons of mass destruction and derailing the Middle East Peace Process and committing human rights abuses. .
The sanctions were imposed by former President Bill Clinton in 1995 and were
set to expire on Thursday. But White House National Security Council spokeswoman
Mary Ellen Countryman said Bush retained the ability to modify or end them.
Sources said the reason President George W. Bush renewed the sanctions was
because Iran failed to respond favourably to friendly gesture initiated by his
Administration which had expressed scepticism over the effectiveness of economic
sanctions in general, and has also shown an interest in improving relations with
Iran.
Relations between Washington and Tehran were cut after a group of revolutionary Iranian students stormed the American Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979, taking 55 America diplomats working at the Embassy as hostages for 444 years.
Mansoor Farhang, a Professor of international relation in Washington and Islamic Republic’s fist ambassador to the United Nations said Iran wants to have full economic and trade relations with the United States and profit from American-made oil and refining technologies without establishing diplomatic ties.
He said considering the fact that Iran has normalised its relations with almost all Persian Gulf nations and Arab nations as far as Egypt, the US does not regard Iran as a threat to the region nor for Israel and suggested that if Iran wanted to normalise with Washington, it should agree on direct official talks with the Americans.
Iran has urged the United States to lift its sanctions, saying it would buy U.S. exports such as agricultural commodities if U.S. markets were opened to Iranian goods.
The United States has repeatedly complained to Russia about the transfer of
missile and nuclear technologies to Iran, sometimes apparently without the
government's approval.
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday criticised Russia for cutting a
new weapons deal with Iran.
"It is not wise to invest in regimes that do not follow international standards of behaviour'', Powell said, testifying before a Senate Budget Committee.
"Bush administration will pursue a realistic policy toward Moscow, intending to nudge Russia into a better relationship", he told the Committee, pointing out that Russia no longer presents a threatening face to the United States.
Zeroing in on an agreement Russian President Vladimir Putin reached with his Iranian guest, Powell said "we have to be candid with the Russians'' and tell them they should not be "investing in weapons sales in countries such as Iran which have no future''.
In response, the Russian Foreign Minister assured that relations between Russia and Iran are not directed against third countries. "On the contrary they are intended to stabilise the situation in the region where our countries co-operate", he said.
But negotiations this week over missile purchase highlights Russia's readiness to press ahead with arms contracts with Iran, expected to be worth around Dollars 300m this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been warned that his policy of aiding Iran's missile and nuclear programs could backfire and Iran could use the missile and nuclear technology to threaten Moscow within 15 years.
Alexei Arbatov, deputy chairman of the Duma's Defense Committee and a strategist expert warned against what he termed was Putin's strategy of helping such U.S. rivals as China, Iran, Libya, North Korea and Pakistan.
He told reporters that Russian technology could help produce an Islamic bomb that might be supplied to insurgents fighting Moscow. The Russian army is dealing with such an insurgency in Chechnya, which he said is being given increasingly rhetorical support by Teheran.
Mr. Khatami left Moscow Wednesday for Saint Petersburg, where he would visit the Izhory Plant factory that builds nuclear components for the Iranian nuclear power plant that is under construction in Bushehr by the Russians and also visit the famous Ermitage Museum before returning to his troubled country. ENDS IRAN RUSSIA US 15301