Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
NEW YORK -- On December 23 Russia voted with a unanimous UN Security Council to punish Iran for its violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The new resolution prohibits UN member states from providing Iran with technologies or components that could be used to make long range missiles or nuclear weapons. Russia Blog reported three weeks ago that Russia would vote to sanction Iran for non-compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency's nuclear non-proliferation regime.
After months of negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hailed the resolution as a compromise that would send a message to the Islamic Republic while protecting Moscow's commercial interests in Iran. Russia is helping Iran build the Bushehr nuclear reactor on the Persian Gulf and has also sold surface to air missile systems to the Islamic Republic. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesmen insist that the SAMs can only be used for short-range air defense purposes and that the Busehr reactor will be subject to vigorous inspections.
Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor under construction
Russia plans to start delivering uranium nuclear fuel to Bushehr next year, although Iran’s difficulties in making payments on time could delay these shipments. While the uranium Russia plans to ship to Iran is civilian grade and cannot directly be used in nuclear weapons, the U.S. fears that Iran could divert spent fuel from the Bushehr reactor to produce plutonium for atomic bombs. North Korea has already diverted spent nuclear fuel to its bomb program, and both Pyongyang and Teheran were involved in a nuclear smuggling ring managed by the Pakistani physicist A.Q. Khan during the 1980s and 90s.
Russia has offered to enrich Iran's uranium for civilian purposes at Russian facilities, but the Iranians have repeatedly rejected these proposals and insisted on maintaining full control over their nuclear fuel cycle. Many analysts view Iran's intransigence as more proof that Iran is not seeking nuclear energy for peaceful purposes but to make atomic bombs. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has fueled these fears by repeatedly calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" (you can read his blog here).
In response to the Security Council vote, the Iranian government dismissed the UN resolution as "a piece of paper" and vowed to accelerate uranium enrichment. The Jerusalem Post reports that Iran may announce soon that it has installed 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium at its Natanz facility. IAEA inspectors found traces of weapons-grade enriched uranium at Natanz in 2003.
The Director of Israel's Mossad spy agency Meir Dagan announced this month that Iran may only be a three years away from building nuclear bombs. Two weeks ago, in a break from previous policy, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert alluded to the existence of Israel's nuclear arsenal for the first time after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. In the last few years Germany has supplied Israel with two Dolphin-class diesel electric submarines. Defense analysts believe that Israel has modified the subs to carry U.S.-manufactured Tomahawk cruise missiles, which could be fitted with nuclear warheads.
