Global Security Newswire

Iran will face increased isolation if it does not curb activities that could help it build nuclear weapons, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said today (see GSN, April 7).

The two leaders came together in the Czech capital of Prague to sign a follow-on agreement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (see related GSN story, today).

Washington and its partners "will not tolerate actions that flout the [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty]," Obama said, according to Agence France-Presse. "Those nations that refuse to meet their obligations will be isolated, and denied the opportunity that comes with international integration."

The United States and its partners suspect Iran's nuclear work is geared toward weapons development; Tehran has denied the allegation, while Moscow and Beijing have treated it with varying levels of skepticism.

Today, though, Medvedev said "we cannot close our eyes" to Iran "not reacting to an array of constructive compromise proposals." Tehran has refused to accept political and economic benefits for halting its uranium enrichment program -- an effort that can produce nuclear-weapon material as well as civilian fuel -- and it rejected a U.N. proposal for enriching Iranian uranium in other countries.

"I have said many times that sanctions very often do not work, but sometimes they are necessary. ... These need to be smart sanctions, capable of prompting the right behavior," the Russian president said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 8).

Obama added: "My expectation is that we are going to be able to secure strong, tough sanctions on Iran this spring," Reuters reported.

"Discussions about the sanctions on Iran have been moving forward over the last several weeks. In fact, they have been moving forward over the last several months. We are going to start seeing some ramped up negotiations taking place [at U.N. headquarters in] New York in the coming weeks," he said (Caren Bohan, Reuters I, April 8).

Representatives from the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations and Germany were set today to discuss a potential fourth U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution targeting Iran's disputed nuclear work, the Associated Press reported. The measures would probably be aimed at the Middle Eastern nation's elite Revolutionary Guard as well as its cargo delivery, insurance and financial industries, according to diplomats (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/Google News, April 8).

Iran has produced several kilograms of uranium enriched to the 20 percent level necessary for operating a medical research reactor in Tehran, Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi said yesterday, according to the Tehran Times. Salehi did not specify the exact amount of the material his country has generated (Tehran Times, April 8).

The Middle Eastern state began producing 20 percent-enriched uranium in February, after it rejected an International Atomic Energy Agency proposal for France and Russia to enrich a large portion of Iran's stockpiled uranium to the 20 percent level. The proposal was aimed at deferring Iran's ability to fuel a nuclear weapon long enough to more fully address Western concerns about the nation's potential nuclear bomb-making capability.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today said Tehran would "try to make an opportunity out of sanctions" instead of altering its nuclear policies to comply with Security Council demands, Reuters reported.

"We do not welcome the idea of threat or sanctions, but we would never implore those who threaten us with sanctions to reverse their sanctions against us," state media quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Meanwhile, Iranian armed forces Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi said Iran would attack U.S. troops in the Middle East in retaliation for any attack by the United States.

"If America presents Iran with a serious threat and undertakes any measure against Iran, none of the American soldiers who are currently in the region would go back to America alive," Firouzabadi said (Hashem Kalantari, Reuters II, April 8).

Iran's ambassador to Moscow discussed the nuclear dispute with a ranking Russian diplomat, Interfax reported yesterday.

Ambassador Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov "discussed the current situation surrounding the Iranian nuclear program and some aspects of the international agenda in the area of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons," partly in relation to next month's NPT review conference, the Russian Foreign Ministry said (Interfax, April 7).

Moscow yesterday reaffirmed its intention to provide Iran with its S-300 air-defense system, RIA Novosti reported. Some experts have expressed concern that Iran could use S-300 defenses to help protect its nuclear facilities from potential airstrikes.

"Contracts have been signed, and they are being implemented -- they have not been torn up," Russian Federal Agency for Military Cooperation head Mikhail Dmitriyev said. He did not specify when the system would be shipped (RIA Novosti I, April 7).

Russia plans to send Iran an additional shipment of fuel for its Bushehr nuclear power plant one year after the site begins operations, Yury Olenin, head of the Russian uranium supplier TVEL, said yesterday (RIA Novosti II, April 7).

Elsewhere, the Russian petroleum firm Lukoil is considering cutting its business ties with Iran, the Financial Times reported (Blitz/Belton, Financial Times, April 7).