Iran Nuclear Watch: Russia to Host New Talks on Iran

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answers a question during his news conference with Albanian counterpart Besnik Mustafaj, unseen, after their talks in Moscow, Wednesday, April 12, 2006. Russia joined the United States on Wednesday in criticizing Iran after its president said Tehran had successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a potential step toward developing nuclear weapons, news agencies reported.

ASSociated Press: Russia to Host New Round of Talks on Iran

Russia will host another round of talks next week with the United States, the European Union and China on Iran’s nuclear program, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The talks will be held in Moscow on Tuesday, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Krivtsov.

China said Thursday that Cui Tiankai, assistant to Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, would visit Iran and Russia on April 14-18. Russia and China, which have strong economic ties with Iran, have opposed the U.S. push for international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns will also be in Moscow on Monday for a meeting of political directors of the Group of Eight, the U.S. Embassy said.

The IAEA is scheduled to report to the United Nations Security Council in two weeks on the 28th. The United States and Britain will then push for economic and travel sanctions against Iran.

Wll Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s latest bloviations about Iran’s uranium enrichment be enough of a portent of a “madman having WMD” for China and Russia, so they will not veto the resolutions?

Possible.

China and Russia may have realized they cannot control their trading partners in Iran and that nuclear-tipped Shabab-3 missiles, indeed, have the range to reach their homelands.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, visited Tehran on Thursday and pushed Iranian officials to suspend uranium enrichment until questions over Tehran’s nuclear program have been resolved. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran will not retreat “one iota” on its uranium enrichment.

Stay tuned…..