Russia proceeds with Iran deal after Albright bid fails

WASHINGTON — The Clinton administration is preparing to impose additional sanctions on Russia amid Moscow's plans to renew arms supplies to Iran.

U.S. officials said the White House appears resigned to the prospect that Moscow will implement its threat to cancel a 1995 understanding that bans future Russian weapons sales to Teheran. The officials said that a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Vienna did not result in a breakthrough.

The Russian termination of the 1995 accord is set for Friday.

During her meeting, Ms. Albright was said to have warned Ivanov that Washington will announce sanctions once Russia sends additional weapons to Iran. U.S. officials said Russia plans to send Iran hundreds of shoulder-fired Russian surface-to-air missiles. They said the missiles are part of a $1.7 billion weapons deal.

The deal is expected to be completed in a series of meetings between Iranian and Russian leaders over the next few months. This includes the visit of Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to Moscow and Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev to Teheran.

Sergeyev is expected to arrive in Teheran in January. Iranian sources said the visit will precede a summit between Khatami and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

For his part, the Russian defense minister said Moscow would not violate any nonproliferation accords signed by his country. "We fully abide by all the international requirements on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," Sergeyev said.

In an unrelated development, diplomatic sources said on Monday that Russia would not offer to join the European Union's 60,000 — strong rapid reaction force.

"Russia may probably only share in some operations staged by the European forces," a diplomatic source told the Interfax news agency. "Our contingent cannot be included in the European corps simply because Russia is not a member nation of the European Union."

Moreover, Russia "is not convinced that the new European force will not be closely linked to NATO," the source said.