Iran says determined to aid Russia in ending Syria crisis →

In a joint news conference with Russian counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbat Salehi says nuclear negotiations are ‘on the right track’.

By DPA | Jun.13, 2012 | 4:44 PM |

Iran said it was determined to support Moscow’s attempts to end the crisis in Syria, which include plans to host talks on the conflict, as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Tehran on Wednesday.

“The Syrian conference in Russia will hopefully be an opportunity to support the plans of (UN-Arab League envoy) Kofi Annan and we are determined to aid Russia in this regard,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said in a press conference with his Russian counterpart.

“We are indeed hopeful that, after this conference, we will witness an end to the killings and a peaceful exit from the crisis in Syria,” Salehi said.

“Iran sincerely wants an end to killings in Syria but some foreign countries just do not let this happen and instead provide the Syrian opposition with weapons and even dispatch forces into Syria,” he added.

Alongside the Syrian conflict, Lavrov was to discuss next week’s nuclear negotiations in Moscow between Iran and six world powers.

Lavrov is to meet later Wednesday with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili.

Salehi said he was optimistic that the June 18 round of nuclear negotiations with the world powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - would be positive and constructive.

“We have had our ups and downs in the nuclear negotiations but we are now on the right track and just have to be patient and tolerant,” Salehi said, without going into detail.

sovietpostcards:

1988

I like the mini samovar.

Every Middle East player has a stake in Syria's sectarian showdown, Jackson Diehl, WaPost →

To judge from the debate at the United Nations, the international tussle over Syria pits a united Arab League and the Western democracies against a recalcitrant Russia, which is trying to prop up the doomed dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad.

If only it were so simple. In reality, the UN debate obscures what has become one of the most complex, volatile and momentous power struggles in the history of the Middle East - one in which Assad and Syrian opposition forces have become virtual pawns, and Russia and the US bit players.

The central drama in Syria is now a sectarian showdown, one that has been gathering force around the region since the US invasion of Iraq. Syria has precipitated a crucial test of strength between Sunnis and Shiites, and between Turkey and Iran. It has triggered existential crises for Palestinians, Kurds and the Shiite government of Iraq.

For Russia and the US, Syria means not a display of Security Council clout but a potentially devastating exhibition of weakness - one that could greatly diminish the standing of both in the region.

"Any further blood that flows will be on their hands."

US Amb. Susan RIce to Russia and China (via thepoliticalnotebook)

I think of Tienanmen Square, and I doubt that there is much regret there.

Guardian | Latest draft of resolution being submitted to UN security council drops call for Syria's president to bow out →

sharquaouia:

Russia and western countries are locked in diplomatic arm-wrestling over demands that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, hands over power to his deputy as part of a UN-backed Arab plan for a peaceful solution to the country’s bloody crisis.

The latest draft of a resolution being submitted to the UN security council, and being discussed by ambassadors in New York late on Thursday, has dropped an explicit demand that Assad bows out but still fully supports the “political transition” sought by the Arab League. The change is triggering concerns that the resolution could be drastically watered down to secure agreement.

Diplomatic sources said the main problem was Russian concern that the league plan constituted regime change by another name. “Moscow is looking to fudge this issue of political transition,” said one western official.

Language could be further softened during the negotiations, with Britain and other western countries signalling satisfaction with a Russian abstention.

Read more

Begs the question: What’s even the point?

^That.

thepoliticalnotebook:

The Problem of the Russia-Syria Relationship. Russia’s been rightly getting a lot of international fingers pointed at it for its ongoing, supportive relationship with Syria, which is an obstacle to international action to stop the Assad’s regime’s crackdown on opposition. Currently Russia and China are positioning themselves to block UN action on Syria in the Security Council and face heavy international pressures over their commitment to this position. So why are they working against international action? Here’s a little bit of unpacking of Russia’s connections with, and their particular interest in, Syria.

Of course, look first to the money. Particularly the money that’s connected to arms deals. Russia is a major trading partner (#3 after the US and China) and the majority of Syria’s imported arms come from Russia (largely in the area of air defense), a relationship first established during the USSR days. (The two just signed a $550m deal for Russia to transfer 36 Yak-130 combat jets to Syria.) After the Cold War, Russia forgave 73% of Syrian debt to the former Soviet Union (much of that debt was accrued as a result of arms deals) and upped cooperation on energy-related and industrial projects.

However, Russia’s regional influence and its worries about maintaining Mediterranean power are significant factors in this situation. As Lebanon’s Daily Star puts it: the last decade has been hard on Russia’s power in the Middle East. With the loss of the Hussein regime in Iraq and 2011’s toppling of Gaddhafi, Syria is now Russia’s “last real bastion of influence in the Arab World.” At major play here is the Syrian port city of Tartous (and also, although less frequently mentioned, the port city of Latakia), where for the past couple of years Russia has been modernizing the Soviet-era naval base for renewed use, and strategically positioning itself on the Mediterranean and in the Arab world. The NYT writes:

Moscow finds itself on the defensive in a frequently disorderly new world order in which Washington appears to call the shots.

The Russian relationship with Bashar al-Assad, and the Russian-Syrian security-based/arms deal relationship, have kept Russia’s hopes for some power plays alive. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov may have recently asserted that “We are not a friend, we are not an ally of President Assad,” but that sounds pretty hollow in the face of their obstructions.

For some fuller reading on Russian strategic interests in the Middle East, check out this book. And this informative recent blog post on the NYT. And for all Syria-related blogging, check out That Sassy Arab on Tumblr. She’s definitely worth a follow.

Photo: Dmitry Medvedev and Bashar al-Assad in Damascus in May of 2010, meeting to discuss energy cooperation. Sasha Mordovets/Getty.

thearabesque:

Russia by Rudi Roels on Flickr.

legrandcirque:

Members of the Church of Old Believers participating in an Easter parade. Photograph by Howard Sochurek. Russia, April 1959.

akio:

Russia ‘worried’ over Iran’s nuclear ambitions - David Blair, Telegraph [UK]

The Kremlin, which generally opposes Western attempts to tighten United Nations sanctions, criticised Iran for starting to enrich uranium at up to 20 per cent purity inside a previously secret plant.

This facility, located at Fordow near the city of Qom, is buried beneath a mountainside and could be invulnerable to military attack.

A statement from the Russian foreign ministry said that Moscow has “with regret and worry received the news of the start of work on enriching uranium at the Iranian plant”.

Iran only declared Fordow to the International Atomic Energy Agency after the facility was discovered by western intelligence agencies. Russia was also kept in the dark – a fact that damaged the Kremlin’s relations with Iran.

This is a strange political pageant.