Iran, Russia reaffirm strategic ties

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran and Russia have reaffirmed their strategic ties and pledged to continue military programs that Western intelligence sources assert include the development of intermediate-range missiles and nuclear weapons.

Moscow and Teheran will continue to expand their strategic ties, Iranian officials said. They rejected that the military programs would violate any arms control treaties signed by Teheran.

On Monday, Iran's ambassador to Moscow, Mehdi Safari, said Teheran regards its ties with Russia as strategic. He told a Moscow conference that marked 40 years of diplomatic relations that Iran regards as a priority its relations with Russia.

The ambassador said the two countries coordinate on policy in the Gulf as well as in Central Asia. This includes cooperation in peace efforts in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The two countries are also coordinating on energy projects in the Caspian sea.

Safari stressed the joint Iranian-Russian cooperation in the construction of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr. He said he expected the work to be completed by 2002.

In response to criticism of Iranian-Russian ties, Safari said Teheran will honor its international agreements on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Western intelligence sources said Russia has made significant progress in developing Iran's capability in intermediate- and long-range missiles.

Russia is also the prime contractor in construction of the Bushehr nuclear reactor. The reactor is meant to be under inspection of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But Western intelligence sources said Bushehr is a cover for a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program aided by Russia. They said Iran has managed to conceal its nuclear weapons program from international inspection and could achieve nuclear capability by 2005.

Leon Fuerth, national security adviser to Vice President Al Gore, who heads a U.S. committee to discuss proliferation issues with Moscow, said the United States has launched an intensive effort to stop the Russian transfer of missile and nuclear technology. "Russia is opposed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," Fuerth said. "It is the execution that is the problem. Now, we have worked with them persistently. We have a degree of progress in the area of ballistic missile technology with things left to be done. We have ongoing and serious concerns on the nuclear side. And these are matters that [National Security Adviser] Sandy [Berger] was pursuing in Moscow, and that the president will pursue when he sees President Putin."

Fuerth told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday that Russia has bet its safety on the premise that "they could buy long-term Iranian friendship, and that Iran would not make trouble for Russia in the vulnerable parts of its former range; and that in places like Chechnya Iran would back off; and that they also had common concerns with the Iranians about the Taliban and so on upon which they could concert action. For that, if you want to call it strategic reason, I think they have had an interest in making sure that the Iranians felt that Russia would be sympathetic to their requirements."