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Iran-Russian Technology Programs Under Growing Strain

File Photo: The Iranian army displays two local missiles during a military parade, held in front of the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to mark the national army day 18 April 2001 in southern Tehran. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said in a speech that Iran needs a strong military to back up its policy of detente with foreign nations. AFP Photo by Atta Kenare
by Jean-Michel Cadiot
Tehran (AFP) Feb 19, 2002
Iran canceled a visit to Russia by Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi due to start Tuesday, with both sides giving different reasons, in a setback for ties with Moscow at a time when Tehran is under severe pressure from Washington.

"Because of the lack of coordination over the programme of Mr. Kharazi's meetings in Moscow, the visit has been postponed to a later date," the foreign ministry said, giving no indication when it might take place.

An Iranian government source said the level of Kharazi's talks was "unsatisfactory", implying that a meeting with President Vladimir Putin was not guaranteed or would not have taken place under the "right" conditions.

A source close to the Kremlin appeared to confirm that a meeting was not on the schedule.

"A foreign minister comes (to Russia) above all to meet his counterpart," the source said. "His eventually being received by the president is a possibility that depends, to a great extent, on the head of state's diary."

The Russian foreign ministry said only that Kharazi's "working visit ... has been postponed by mutual agreement until a later date, which will be agreed through diplomatic channels."

Spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said the postponement was "connected to the need to resolve several questions of bilateral cooperation."

Kharazi had been due to arrive late Monday and have talks Wednesday with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, on Afghanistan, the US-led "war on terror" and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Ironically, the trip would have coincided with one by US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton, who is heading to Moscow to negotiate a disarmament accord ahead of the US-Russian summit in May.

During his State of the Union address last month, US President George W. Bush labeled Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil," accusing them of seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction.


AFP File Photo
Germany Warns Russia Over Missile Sales To Iran
Berlin (AFP) Feb 19, 2002 - German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has warned Russia not to sell Iran long-range weapons capable of carrying biological and chemical weapons, a German government source said Tuesday.

Fischer met in Berlin on Tuesday with the head of the Russian state committee for chemical weapons disarmament, Sergei Kiriyenko.

"We must make every effort to limit the profileration of weapons of mass destruction and missile technology, particularly in crisis regions," Fischer told him, according to a German foreign ministry statement.

Russia has long been a supplier of military technology to Iran.

But Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov denied at an international security conference in Munich earlier this month that his country was intending to sell weapons of mass destruction to Iran.

He said Russia would continue to have "normal relations" with Iran -- which US President George W. Bush has classed along with Iraq and North Korea as part of an "axis of evil".

Fischer also called Tuesday on Russia to implement a treaty signed in 1997 requiring it to destroy all chemical weapons by 2007 and to convert their production sites to civilian use.

Russia has expressed strong support for the US military campaign in Afghanistan, but scorned Washington's suggestion that an "axis of evil" is sponsoring international terrorism.

Ivanov has said Moscow intended to maintain "normal" relations with Tehran.

In a telephone conversation with Kharazi Tuesday, Ivanov expressed his "regret" that the trip had been cancelled and the hope that a new date will be set soon, the official IRNA news agency reported from Tehran.

Over fierce US objections, Russia is constructing a nuclear power plant in western Iran that the country's atomic energy ministry announced last week will begin operating in September 2003.

Moscow also rejects US allegations its research institutes are selling Iran sensitive technologies that would allow Tehran to develop its missile programme and produce weapons of mass destruction.

In a press conference Monday, Kharazi said his visit "has been planned for a long time, and I can say that our two countries have common positions with regard to many subjects."

He said his talks in Moscow would deal with the "situation in Afghanistan and notably the recent attitude of the United States" toward Iran.

Iran and Russia both supported the Northern Alliance which ousted Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban militia as part of the US-led campaign.

However, with an interim government freshly established in Kabul, they are also two of several countries struggling for influence in Afghanistan and vying to tap into the country's vast oil and gas reserves.

They are also at odds over the sharing of the resources, notably oil, of the Caspian Sea, among its littoral states, which include both countries.

Analysts here said Kharazi's talks were viewed as highly important, particularly with regard to Afghanistan, where Washington accuses Tehran of "meddling", and the US threats against Iran and its neighbour Iraq.

Meanwhile, a Seoul newspaper reported Tuesday that Iran and other Middle East nations will be able to deploy North Korean medium-range Rodong missiles in two or three years.

Reserve Brigadier-General Shlomo Brom, ex-chief of the Israeli Strategic Planning Division, told the JoongAng Ilbo that the North had exported missiles even after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

North Korea's missile exports and its suspected weapons of mass destruction will be at the heart of talks between US President George W. Bush during his three day stay in South Korea from Tuesday.

Bush said last month that North Korea was part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq that was spreading weapons of mass destruction.

"Iran has already test-launched intermediate-range missiles imported from the North," Brom was quoted as saying, adding Iran would deploy the Rodong missiles aimed at Israel in two or three years.

Brom, a researcher at the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies, is in Seoul for the first South Korea-Israel defense workshop. The seminar is sponsored by the Korean Institution of Defense and Analysis.

Brom said Iran had imported Rodong missile engines and developed its own intermediate-range Shahab-3 missiles. The Rodong missile, developed in the late 1980s, has a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).

Brom said North Korea exported complete missiles, mostly Scuds with a range of 600 to 800 kilometers, in the 1980s and shifted its focus to sales of missile components and technology in the 1990s.

"North Korean cargo boats must be inspected on the high seas," he said.

He said negotiations between Israel and North Korea had broken off because the North demanded unreasonably high compensation in return for giving up missile exports.

The North's missile trade has been a major currency earner for the impoverished country.

The US Central Intelligence Agency said North Korea remains a major seller of missiles and related technology to the Middle East and other fraught regions.

Brom said pressure from Washington is the best means of persuading the North to end missile proliferation.

The Stalinist North declared a moratorium on missile launch tests in 1999, a year after firing a suspected ballistic missile carrier over Japan, demonstrating its ability to launch long-range warheads.

The United States now fears North Korean missiles could reach Alaska and that it could export its weapons' know-how to other unfriendly states.

US officials, who have struggled to curb North Korea's development and export of missiles, believe Pyongyang has pursued attempts to procure missile technology.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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Scud "Axis" An Alliance With Missiles But No Direction
Seoul (AFP) Feb 5, 2002
The "evil" trio of North Korea, Iran and Iraq that President George W. Bush has vowed to bring to heel is united in the quest to find weapons powerful enough to counter US military might. But outside this mighty task, the three states whose names regularly darken international disarmament conferences make up an unlikely, almost unholy alliance with no common strategy, diplomats and experts say.



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