U.S. warns Russia to restrict arms sales to Iran
WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - The United States urged Russia on Monday not to provide Iran with advanced conventional weapons or sensitive military technology when it resumes its controversial arms sales.
Washington is also expected this week to extend a long-standing ban on trade with Iran and investment in Iran, added a U.S. official, who asked not to be named.
The State Department, commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to sell Iran defensive weapons, said it would be a matter of ``great concern'' if the two categories of weapons ended up in Iranian hands.
It would also be counterproductive for Russia to sell Iran weapons that could threaten both Russia and the United States, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a briefing.
Putin served notice to the United States on Monday that he planned to go ahead with selling arms to Iran and to complete construction there of a nuclear power plant.
Russia had refrained from such sales under a secret agreement with the United States struck in 1995, but last year it said it would no longer abide by the deal.
Boucher said he could not judge the Russian offer in itself because the United States did not know what kind of weapons Russia was thinking of selling to Iran.
``PARTICULARLY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE''
But he added: ``We would be looking particularly closely at anything that was advanced conventional weapons or sensitive technologies. We think it's particularly counterproductive for the Russians to sell things in their neighborhood ... that might threaten us all.''
``Advanced conventional weapons and sensitive technologies ... are of great concern to the United States, and we would expect to raise them quite energetically and repeatedly if that was the area that they started going into,'' he said.
The daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted officials from Russia's arms export agency as saying shipments could include spare parts for BMP-1 and BTW-80 armored vehicles and T-62 and T-72 tanks. It said parts could also be supplied for Su-24, Su-25 and MiG-29 aircraft and three types of helicopter.
Officials also expected an extension of the six-year U.S. trade and investment ban on Iran, which will lapse if the administration of President George W. Bush does not renew it by Thursday.
``Nobody has given me any indication that there was any need for change at the moment,'' a U.S. official said.
The Bush administration has shown less enthusiasm for sanctions than the team of former President Bill Clinton, and Secretary of State Colin Powell has said Washington will seek opportunities to improve ties with Iran, which have been frosty since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
But no major changes are expected until the expiration in August of a separate U.S. law -- the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act -- threatening sanctions against foreign energy firms investing in those two countries.
TEHRAN EXPECTED EXTENSION
``The Iranian government will not be surprised that the U.S. renews the executive order,'' said Hooshang Amirahmadi, president of the American-Iranian Council.
``The turning point will be in August, when ILSA comes up for renewal. The administration will either have to remove ILSA or reinforce it, as the way it is being handled at the moment is an embarrassment,'' Amirahmadi said.
The law has been flouted by several European and Asian oil companies, including supermajor Royal Dutch/Shell The United States has repeatedly complained to Russia about the transfer of missile and nuclear technology to Iran, sometimes apparently without Moscow's approval.
U.S. officials have also named Iran as one of the countries with a missile program that could pose a threat to the United States. Along with Iraq and North Korea, it is cited as one reason why the United States needs a missile defense system.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last month that Russia was part of the problem of missile proliferation.
The first deputy chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, Valery Manilov, responded, ``Russia has not violated, does not violate and will not violate its obligations, including in the area of nonproliferation.''
Washington also accuses Tehran of sponsoring terrorism and seeking to sabotage Arab-Israeli peace efforts, as well as committing human rights abuses. |
