American_Jihad
10-16-2007, 12:46 AM
Putin to go to Iran despite assassination threat :add02:
October 16, 2007
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin said overnight he would visit Iran to discuss its nuclear program despite a reported assassination plot against him.
"Of course I am going to Iran," Mr Putin told a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "If you react to various threats and recommendations of the security services, then you should sit at home".
Kremlin officials had earlier said plans for Mr Putin's visit were in doubt after a Russian news agency reported, quoting a single unnamed security source, that plotters were planning to assassinate Mr Putin in Tehran.
The visit, the first by a Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin in 1943, has drawn intense interest given Russia's possible leverage in curbing Iranian atomic ambitions, due to Moscow's existing trade and nuclear supply ties with Tehran.
The office of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Mr Putin will arrive in Tehran tomorrow morning local time, not this evening as earlier announced.
Mr Putin, who has resisted Western pressure in a group of six world powers for harsher sanctions against Iran, said patience and negotiation were the best tools for dealing with the Islamic Republic and that trying to intimidate Tehran was "hopeless".
"If we have a chance to keep up these direct contacts, then we will do it, hoping for a positive, mutually advantageous result," he said.
Ms Merkel took a tougher line, saying the United Nations must impose more sanctions on Iran if it does not comply with demands to suspend uranium enrichment, which Western powers suspect is a disguised quest for atom bombs. Iran denies seeking such bombs.
Russia's Interfax news agency said yesterday that Mr Putin had been warned by his special services of a possible assassination plot during his visit to Tehran this week.
Russian media are mostly controlled by the government and it would be unthinkable for a major news organisation to report an alleged plot against Mr Putin without prior official approval.
Russian television channels said plots to kill Mr Putin were foiled in St Petersburg in 2000 and Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2001.
Iran dismissed the report, calling it "psychological warfare" by Tehran's enemies - an apparent reference to Western powers - to undermine Russian-Iranian relations.
In a historical coincidence, reports of an assassination plot also hung over Stalin's wartime visit to Tehran to meet allies Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On that occasion, Stalin said Soviet intelligence had uncovered Nazi plans to kill Roosevelt, persuading the American president to move into the Soviet embassy for his stay.
Western monitors were watching Mr Putin's trip to Tehran, which says it seeks only peaceful uses for nuclear energy.
Mr Putin was officially travelling to Tehran to take part in a summit of Caspian Sea states.
But a planned private meeting with Mr Ahmadinejad could give him a chance to seek a compromise on Tehran's nuclear program and demonstrate his independence from Washington on Middle East issues.
Although the United States wants a tougher line on Iran and is much more suspicious of Tehran's nuclear objectives than Russia, Washington has repeatedly praised Moscow's cooperation in the group of six, which is dealing with Iran's case.
Mr Putin has in turn promised during his visit to stick to the established six-party line on Iran - to encourage Tehran to cooperate with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and prove its program is intended only for peaceful purposes.
Mr Putin also vowed to observe the word and spirit of the Russian constitution in upcoming elections but indicated he would continue to play a role in politics after leaving office.
But he said that "does not mean that representatives of the current authorities have no right to take part in the political life of their own country".
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22593746-401,00.html
October 16, 2007
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin said overnight he would visit Iran to discuss its nuclear program despite a reported assassination plot against him.
"Of course I am going to Iran," Mr Putin told a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "If you react to various threats and recommendations of the security services, then you should sit at home".
Kremlin officials had earlier said plans for Mr Putin's visit were in doubt after a Russian news agency reported, quoting a single unnamed security source, that plotters were planning to assassinate Mr Putin in Tehran.
The visit, the first by a Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin in 1943, has drawn intense interest given Russia's possible leverage in curbing Iranian atomic ambitions, due to Moscow's existing trade and nuclear supply ties with Tehran.
The office of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Mr Putin will arrive in Tehran tomorrow morning local time, not this evening as earlier announced.
Mr Putin, who has resisted Western pressure in a group of six world powers for harsher sanctions against Iran, said patience and negotiation were the best tools for dealing with the Islamic Republic and that trying to intimidate Tehran was "hopeless".
"If we have a chance to keep up these direct contacts, then we will do it, hoping for a positive, mutually advantageous result," he said.
Ms Merkel took a tougher line, saying the United Nations must impose more sanctions on Iran if it does not comply with demands to suspend uranium enrichment, which Western powers suspect is a disguised quest for atom bombs. Iran denies seeking such bombs.
Russia's Interfax news agency said yesterday that Mr Putin had been warned by his special services of a possible assassination plot during his visit to Tehran this week.
Russian media are mostly controlled by the government and it would be unthinkable for a major news organisation to report an alleged plot against Mr Putin without prior official approval.
Russian television channels said plots to kill Mr Putin were foiled in St Petersburg in 2000 and Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2001.
Iran dismissed the report, calling it "psychological warfare" by Tehran's enemies - an apparent reference to Western powers - to undermine Russian-Iranian relations.
In a historical coincidence, reports of an assassination plot also hung over Stalin's wartime visit to Tehran to meet allies Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On that occasion, Stalin said Soviet intelligence had uncovered Nazi plans to kill Roosevelt, persuading the American president to move into the Soviet embassy for his stay.
Western monitors were watching Mr Putin's trip to Tehran, which says it seeks only peaceful uses for nuclear energy.
Mr Putin was officially travelling to Tehran to take part in a summit of Caspian Sea states.
But a planned private meeting with Mr Ahmadinejad could give him a chance to seek a compromise on Tehran's nuclear program and demonstrate his independence from Washington on Middle East issues.
Although the United States wants a tougher line on Iran and is much more suspicious of Tehran's nuclear objectives than Russia, Washington has repeatedly praised Moscow's cooperation in the group of six, which is dealing with Iran's case.
Mr Putin has in turn promised during his visit to stick to the established six-party line on Iran - to encourage Tehran to cooperate with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and prove its program is intended only for peaceful purposes.
Mr Putin also vowed to observe the word and spirit of the Russian constitution in upcoming elections but indicated he would continue to play a role in politics after leaving office.
But he said that "does not mean that representatives of the current authorities have no right to take part in the political life of their own country".
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22593746-401,00.html