Russia raised Western hopes that it will support tougher international sanctions against Iran’s nuclear programme by announcing a delay in delivery of S-300 advanced air defence missiles.
The postponement for unspecified “technical problems” was made public a day after Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, urged Russia to support “crippling” sanctions against Tehran during a visit to Moscow.
The United States and Israel have been pressing Russia not to deliver the S-300 missiles, which would make a successful military strike much more difficult if diplomacy failed to resolve the stand-off over Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Iran insists that its atomic programme is peaceful but an announcement last week that it had begun to upgrade uranium from 3.5 per cent to 20 per cent enrichment has intensified suspicions that President Ahmadinejad is intent on building a nuclear bomb.
A weapon would require 90 per cent enrichment, but experts fear that enrichment to 20 per cent would put Iran on the verge of nuclear breakout. One American official told The Times that the early stages of the process were the hardest, adding: “If you get to 20 per cent you are 90 per cent of the way to 90 per cent.”
President Medvedev’s spokeswoman said after his talks with Mr Netanyahu that Iran had to convince the international community that its nuclear programme was peaceful, adding: “In case these commitments are not fulfilled, no one can rule out the use of sanctions.” Russia signed a contract in December 2005 to sell at least five S-300 systems to Iran. The mobile missile defence batteries have a range of up to 150 kilometres and can intercept low-flying attack aircraft and ballistic missiles. The Kremlin has insisted repeatedly that the $800 million (£507 million) contract will be fulfilled, but Iran has grown frustrated at Russia’s failure to deliver.
The Foreign Ministry in Tehran has warned that failure to honour the contract would “leave a negative imprint in the memory of the Iranian public”. Iran also claimed to be developing an air-defence system of its own that would be superior to the S-300.
Moscow gave no indication of when the latest problems would be ironed out. Alexander Fomin, deputy head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said: “The delay is due to technical problems. The delivery will be carried out when they are resolved.” Western diplomats in Moscow are increasingly confident that Russia has softened its opposition to further sanctions against Iran. The United States has said it intends to go to the United Nations later this month to press for new measures.
There were suggestions that the Kremlin may have agreed to block the S-300 sale to Iran in exchange for Israeli willingness to halt arms sales to Georgia, which fought a war with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia in 2008. Israel sold unmanned reconnaissance drones to Georgia and helped train its military before the conflict.
Mr Netanyahu did not deny a link in an interview with Kommersant newspaper yesterday. He said: “Whenever it comes to arms sales, we always take into account the concerns of all sides and we expect Russia to do the same - to act in the interest of stability in unstable regions.”
Russia is building Iran’s first atomic power station at Bushehr, but relations between the two countries have become strained recently and a visit to Moscow by Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator was postponed indefinitely last month. Russia joined the US and France on Tuesday in condemning Iran’s decision to boost enrichment.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7031284.ece
