U.S., Russia Can't Agree On Iran Sanctions

The United States and key European countries failed to make any progress with Russia on the scope of U.N. sanctions that Iran should face for refusing to rein in its nuclear program and suspend uranium enrichment.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Wednesday there were still "wide gaps" between the Russians and Europeans, a view echoed by Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.

The five veto-wielding Security Council members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — and Germany have now held six rounds of closed-door talks here with both camps refusing to budge.

"We'll report back again that after the sixth meeting, we are still basically where we have been," Bolton said. Asked whether there had been any progress since the talks began, he said, "Well, we didn't make any progress today — let's leave it at that."

En route to Asia Wednesday, Mr. Bush made a brief stop in Moscow for refueling, both Air Force One, and himself, at a dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Alexei Gromov as saying the two presidents discussed the Iranian nuclear program, among other things.

National security adviser Stephen Hadley, talking to reporters aboard Air Force One after Mr. Bush left, said that the president's get-together with Putin "was a social meeting as we said it would be. This was a refueling stop."

But Hadley also said that they "talked a little bit about proliferation generally" with regards to Iran and North Korea. He also said that he spoke with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, about efforts to find an agreement on a new U.N. security resolution on Iran.

"We had a good discussion about that," Hadley said. "I think basically the strategy that all of the countries who are working on this is to come up with a resolution themselves. I think the Russians think it's sound."

But Churkin said Wednesday at U.N. Headquarters that senior foreign ministry officials from the six countries failed to bridge the differences during a telephone discussion Tuesday and at Wednesday's meeting of U.N. ambassadors there was "a rather intense exchange of opinion." He said there was "movement," but he couldn't tell whether it represented progress.

The Europeans circulated a draft resolution late last month that would order all countries to ban the supply of materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs and impose a travel ban and asset freeze on companies, individuals and organizations involved in those programs. It would exempt the nuclear power plant now being built by the Russians at Bushehr, Iran, but not the nuclear fuel needed for the reactor.

Russia proposed major changes that would limit sanctions solely to measures that would keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and eliminate any travel ban, asset freeze, or mention of Bushehr. The United States also proposed amendments that would strengthen the measures proposed by Britain and France.
Both Russia and China, which have major commercial ties with Iran, have continued to publicly push for dialogue instead of U.N. punishment, despite the collapse last month of a European Union attempt to entice Iran into talks.

"Our position is very clear," Churkin said. "We think at this point ... we should focus our efforts on non-proliferation risks which emanate from the Iranian activity in the nuclear area. So this is the stage of the game."

He referred to talks in Moscow last week between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani. Both called for a renewal of international talks with Iran, stressing that the dispute should be resolved through negotiations rather than sanctions. Lavrov said Moscow could help bridge the differences with the U.S. and Europeans.

In the most optimistic assessment of that meeting, Churkin said, "after the discussions which we had with Mr. Larijani ... we believe that there is a chance for a negotiated outcome."

"So we believe that if and when the resolution is adopted, it should leave doors open for further negotiations with the Iranians," he said.

The six countries offered Iran a package of economic incentives and political rewards in June if it agreed to consider a long-term moratorium on enrichment and commit to a freeze on uranium enrichment before talks on its nuclear program.

But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly and defiantly said his country would continue enrichment, and is not intimidated by the possibility of sanctions.

Bolton said the Russian explanations about their text "shows that there are wide gaps in the items that would be covered under the two alternative sanctions proposals."

He said "the very targeted sanctions" in the European draft "are entirely appropriate and we don't want to strip away many of the goods and technology that would be covered."

Bolton and Churkin, when asked whether negotiations should now move up to foreign ministers, said the U.N. ambassadors would keep talking. But Bolton said other discussions would talk place, including on the sidelines of the upcoming Asia-Pacific summit in Hanoi, Vietnam which will be attended by the U.S., Russian and Chinese leaders.

In a Fox News interview earlier Wednesday, Bolton expressed hope that U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk about sanctions against Iran because "we've been having a lot of difficulty with Russia in particular."

Russia must accept that "the fight against nuclear proliferation is more important than commercial contracts," he said.

U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley played down differences between Washington and Moscow, saying negotiations on U.N. resolutions are "a little bit like sausage making."

"It's not pretty and a lot of it spills out to the public, but I think the international community has held together on this issue and I think it will again," he said.