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Iran president says peace proposal to Russia is 'comprehensive'
New Delhi (AFP) April 30, 2008 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday said that a "comprehensive" package offered to Russia was aimed at "eradicating" the threats of war. The comments follow statements by Tehran's top national security official that he had held talks with his Russian counterpart on a new Iranian proposals to solve world problems, including the nuclear standoff with the West. Ahmadinejad, after meeting Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, said the "comprehensive" package was based on mutual friendship. "We have offered a proposal for comprehensive cooperation and constructive dialogue based on friendship and sustainable security to eradicate threats of war," Ahmadinejad told reporters. "Its a valued issue we have proposed to discuss with them," the Iranian leader said, without giving further details of the proposals, which appear to be a wide friendship treaty rather than a specific offer to end the nuclear crisis. On Monday Iran's top national security official Saeed Jalili said after talks with Russia's Valentin Sobolev that Tehran planned to have a "good basis for negotiations" with the West. The package also appears to emphasise what Iran sees as its growing power in the world and the supposed decline of Britain and the United States. "The world is no longer unilateral," Jalili told a news conference alongside Sobolev, the acting head of Russia's security council. It would be a major surprise if the package contained any concession from Iran to break the deadlock in the nuclear standoff as Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said Tehran will not budge. The West fears Iran wants to use nuclear technology to make an atomic weapon but Ahmadinejad in New Delhi insisted that developed nations planned to monopolise nuclear energy to meet their needs. "They (the West) want to deny the world cheap nuclear energy and they are bringing political pressure on countries to discourage them from their nuclear energy programmes," Ahmadinejad said. "The ruling parties of the world (West) want all the good things exclusively for themselves and their stand that we are building nuclear weapons is a lie," he said through an interpreter. Russia is building Iran's first nuclear power station in the southern city of Bushehr, a much delayed project due to come online in 2008. It is also contracted to supply nuclear fuel for the facility. With robust political and economic ties with Tehran, Moscow has played a key role in the nuclear standoff. It has repeatedly urged the West to solve the crisis through diplomacy but as a veto-wielding UN Security Council permanent member it has also backed three resolutions imposing sanctions against Tehran. Moscow has also told Tehran it currently has no need to enrich uranium on its own soil and should obey the resolutions' calls to stop the process, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. India, which carried out nuclear weapons tests in 1998, is bound to Russia with a 20-year friendship treaty. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Outside View: Overcoming nuclear legacy
Los Angeles (UPI) April 25, 2008 Perhaps it says something about the "positive" state of Russian-American relations that the recent Bush-Putin Sochi summit could take place at all against the backdrop of Moscow's strenuous opposition to NATO expansion and Washington's plans to build a ballistic defense in neighboring countries. So it ought to come as no surprise that, despite the happy face the two leaders put on at the end of their meeting, the best their Strategic Framework Declaration could come up with was the statement of dedication to move from a relationship of "strategic competition to strategic partnership." |
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