Exercise in futility? Clinton again asks Russia not to aid Iran's missile program

WASHINGTON — The Clinton administration is making what could be one last effort to stop Russian missile proliferation to Iran.

The Russian proliferation was raised during a meeting in New York last Wednesday between U.S. President Bill Clinton and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. U.S. officials said Clinton discussed Russia's aid to Iran's intermediate- and long-range missile program, Middle East Newsline reported.

It was the same "issue which has come up in virtually every presidential meeting and for that matter vice presidential meeting for the last number of years," U.S. Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott said, "which is stopping the illicit transfer of Russian technology, both on nuclear weaponry and also on ballistic missile technology, to Iran."

It was the third meeting between the two presidents. U.S. officials said Putin has allowed the increase of the flow of Russian missile technology to Iran during his presidency.

Israeli officials have urged the United States to raise the issue with Moscow. On Thursday, however, Prime Minister Ehud Barak met Putin and Israeli sources said the Israeli leader failed to cite Russian proliferation to Iran or Iraq.

U.S. officials said Clinton also discussed Iraq and its missile and nonconventional weapons programs. Russia has been a leading advocate for the lifting of United Nations sanctions from the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The officials said Clinton urged Putin to press Saddam to allow weapons inspectors in that country.

U.S. officials said Saddam has amassed more than $9 billion from the UN oil-for-food program, meant to purchase food and vital supplies for the Iraqi people.

"President Clinton knows this issue very well," Talbott said. "He used facts and figures, including on the amount of money that Saddam Hussein has put into his defense establishment as a result of oil revenues."

On Friday, an arms control official at the State Department official told Congress that an effective missile defense system will enhance the ability of the United States "to fulfill its NATO and global security commitments.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Avis Bohlen told the House Subcommittee on National Security that U.S. allies have "uniformly welcomed" Clinton's Sept. 1 decision to defer national missile defense deployment to provide additional time to discuss the emerging ballistic missile threat and the corresponding role of missile defenses in addressing that threat.