Israeli Minister Gets Little Support
In town for one day on Thursday to lobby the government for a change in its tack on Iran’s nuclear policy, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, left with only general assurances.
“We are fulfilling the wishes of our Israeli partners and are taking a firm stance,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his counterpart at a news conference.
Livni had earlier asked the government to increase pressure on the leadership in Iran to curtail its nuclear ambitions, complaining that the present course might be actually helping Iran along its current path.
“Now that Russia has started delivering nuclear fuel to Bushehr, [Iran's] uranium enrichment may serve military goals,” Livni told a conference at Moscow’s Diplomatic Academy before her meeting with Lavrov.
Russia last month delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran’s first nuclear power plant, in Bushehr, a step that both Moscow and Washington said should convince Tehran to stop its own uranium enrichment program.
Russia is building the facility, but it has delayed the completion of the plant, saying Iran has been slow to make payments. Iranian officials have denied payment delays and accused Moscow of kowtowing to the West.
On Thursday, Lavrov went only as far as to say that it was paramount to support United Nations inspections in Iran.
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Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 5:37 pm under