Deception in Iraq Options

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,80659,00.html
Foreign Minister: Russia Will Vote 'No'
Monday, March 10, 2003
Associated Press

MOSCOW — Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Monday that Russia would vote against the U.S. and British resolution before the U.N. Security Council giving Saddam Hussein a March 17 deadline to disarm or face war, a news agency reported.
This marks the first time Russia has explicitly said it would vote against the resolution in its current form.
Washington and London, however, have indicated they were willing to consider amending the text, and Ivanov did not say what Russia would do in case of changes.
Because Russia has veto power, a "no" vote would kill the resolution, even if nine of the 15 Security Council members vote for it. France and China also could veto the U.S.-British resolution with a "no" vote.
Russia, unlike Germany and France, has been careful not to damage its relations with the United States over the Iraq crisis. By emphasizing that its objections related to the resolution in its current form, the Kremlin left itself considerable room to change course.
Many analysts have suggested that President Vladimir Putin, whose improved ties with the White House are a major accomplishment of his administration, would not ultimately risk a veto.
"In the course of the latest session of the U.N. Security Council, we did not hear serious arguments for the use of force to solve the Iraqi problem," Ivanov said, according to Interfax.
"Russia believes that no further resolutions of the U.N. Security Council are necessary and therefore Russia openly declares that if the draft resolution that currently has been introduced for consideration and which contains demands in an ultimate form that cannot be met is nonetheless put to a vote then Russia will vote against this resolution," he said, according to Interfax.
Russia has consistently said it opposes any resolution that would automatically trigger the use of military force against Iraq should Saddam fail to comply with U.N. demands that Baghdad destroy its weapons of mass destruction.
Ivanov made the remarks during a ceremony in which he received an honorary doctorate at his alma mater Moscow State Linguistics University.
Asked whether Iraq could withstand a U.S. attack, Ivanov said, "Of course not."
Ivanov added that any such U.S. military action would "lead to victims among the civilian population, to destruction and not to the resolution of those problems for which the U.N. Security Council took the appropriate resolutions."
Russia has called for the continuation of weapons inspections, saying that largely positive reports by the head U.N. weapons inspectors to the Security Council last week have shown that Iraq is cooperating and that progress toward its disarmament is being made.
The Kremlin has warned the United States that it would consider a unilateral attack against Baghdad a mistake and a violation of the U.N. charter.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/.../032100901.html
March 21, 2003
Putin: Iraq War Could Destabilize Region
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW (AP) -

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday the U.S.-led war on Iraq could destabilize the former Soviet republics.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also said war would impede efforts to resolve the standoff over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, in an address to the lower house of parliament, argued that the Bush administration had exaggerated its support from the "coalition of the willing."
"This coalition is a made-up thing, which in reality only consists of the United States and Britain," Ivanov said.
Aside from Spain and Australia, Ivanov said the coalition members "were either silent or signaled indirectly that they don't oppose such actions."
A foreign occupation of Iraq without permission from the U.N. Security Council would be illegitimate, Ivanov said. But he also told lawmakers the war should not derail the anti-terrorist coalition formed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The lower house of parliament, or State Duma, passed a resolution asking Putin to urge the Security Council to send U.N. forces to Iraq and convene a special session of the U.N. General Assembly.
Russia had joined France and Germany in spearheading opposition in the United Nations to military action against Iraq, saying weapons inspection should continue.
The Russians moved forward with their plan to provide humanitarian relief to war refugees. Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said the first Russian plane would reach Kermanshah, Iran, late Friday. It will carry a mobile hospital capable of treating up to 5,000 people, the Interfax news agency reported.
Putin, meanwhile, told a meeting of top security officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States, a group of former Soviet republics, that the Iraq war could destabilize their nations, where radical Islamic movements pose a security threat.
"The crisis has spilled beyond a local conflict and today has become a potential source of instability in other regions, including the Commonwealth of Independent States," Putin said. "The war against Iraq is a decision that might trigger unpredictable consequences, including increased extremism."
Also Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov met with South Korea's ambassador to Moscow, Chung Tae Ik.
Moscow has pushed the United States to hold direct talks with North Korea over its suspected nuclear weapons program - something Washington has refused to do.
The North Korean crisis flared in October, when U.S. officials said Pyongyang acknowledged having a covert nuclear program in violation of a 1994 deal. Washington and its allies suspended fuel shipments; the North retaliated by expelling U.N. monitors, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and restarting a nuclear reactor.
"The flouting of international law in the Persian Gulf, the turning from a multilateral political to a unilateral military scenario can complicate the actively advancing diplomatic resolution of the Korean problem by Moscow and Seoul," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement after Friday's meeting.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,81917,00.html
Russian Dealers Supply Iraq With Electronics, Supplies
Sunday, March 23, 2003
By Liza Porteus
FOX News

WASHINGTON — Russian arms dealers have supplied Iraq with supplies and electronic jamming equipment that could throw U.S. planes and bombs off course, Fox News has confirmed.
The Washington Post first reported Sunday that Bush administration sources said one Russian company is helping the Iraqi military deploy global-positioning system jammers to Baghdad, while two other companies have sold anti-tank missiles and thousands of night-vision goggles in violation of U.N. sanctions.
The United States protested the aid to the government of President Vladimir Putin on Saturday for not doing more to stop the transactions, the Post reported.
Fox News confirmed that Russians were in fact selling the equipment to Baghdad and that Russian technicians were in the Iraqi capital this week, instructing Iraqis on how to use the devices.
"We are very concerned about reports that Russian firms are selling militarily sensitive equipment to Iraq," State Department spokeswoman Brenda Greenberg told Fox News. "Such equipment in the hands of the Iraqi military may pose a direct threat to U.S. and coalition armed forces."
During more than a year of talks, the Russian officials initially denied the existence of the company that sold the electronic jammers, U.S. officials said. Later, the Russians sad they were closely monitoring the company.
"The stuff's there, it's on the ground and they're trying to use it against us," a U.S. official told the Post. Of the Russians, the official said: "This is a disregard for human life. It sickens my stomach."
U.S. officials say they provided Russian authorities with names, addresses and phone numbers -- and in some cases, shipping dates and ports of exit -- of people involved in the sales so that Moscow could deal with it.
"We regard this as a very serious matter and thus have raised it with the Russian government at very high levels over the past two weeks," Greenberg told Fox News. "The response so far has not been satisfactory. We hope the responsible Russian agencies will take our concerns seriously."
Saddam Hussein's regime has upped its stockpile of anti-tank guided missiles produced by a company called KBP Tula, the Post reported. The United States slapped this company with sanctions last year for selling anti-tank weapons to Syria, officials said.
But Iraq bought a "militarily significant quantity" of Kornet missiles from that company in the past two months, reports the Post, and Putin's government was notified.
The White House voiced the greatest opposition to the jamming devices, which officials said sell for thousands of dollars each and were sold by the Moscow-based manufacturer, Aviaconversiya, the Post reported. Protests were first lodged in June 2002.
These devices were initially imported to counter U.S. and British jets patrolling the "no-fly" zones of northern and southern Iraq, U.S. officials told the Post, and were deployed last week when coalition forces began to attack Baghdad.
Russian officials have even been summoned to Washington to discuss these issues. U.S. officials were angered when they found out last week that the Russian firms were showing Iraqis how to use and fix the equipment.
The Russians "sure as hell should have been able to stop these guys," an official told the Post.
Fox News reported in January that Iraq may have obtained as many as 400 electronic "jammers" that could throw America's smart bombs off their programmed path if the U.S. goes to war.
There was "real concern at the highest levels" at the Pentagon that Baghdad may have purchased the jammers from a Russian firm, a senior defense official said then.
Officials said that if the smart bombs are diverted from their designated targets, no one knows what, or whom, they might hit instead. The worst-case scenario is they might fall on civilian sites and kill innocent people, causing collateral damage.
The types of bombs whose courses may be altered by these jammers are called J-Dams -- for "joint direct attack munitions," guided by global satellites. These are the military's GPS guided bombs. Each one costs about $21,000 and has a maximum range of 15 miles. J-Dams made their combat debut in Kosovo in 1999.
It's estimated that 80 percent of U.S. weapons that would be used in a war with Iraq would be directed via satellites.
The Air Force is now trying to test similar jammers to see if those used by an enemy can really work on U.S. weapons.
Fox News' Teri Schultz contributed to this report.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/03/21/002.html
Putin Calls the Attack a Big Political Mistake
Friday, Mar. 21, 2003
By Simon Saradzhyan and Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writers

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday demanded an immediate end to the U.S.-led military action against Iraq, denouncing it as a "big political mistake" that threatens the existing international security system and could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe in the region.
"This military action cannot be justified," a stern-looking Putin said in his toughest statement to date on Washington's plans to forcefully remove Saddam Hussein's regime.
"If we allow international law to be replaced by the law of the fist, under which the strong is always right and is unlimited in the choice of means to achieve his goals, then one of the basic principles of international law, the principle of the inviolability of the sovereignty of states, will be put into question," he said.
Once this principle is ignored, "no country in the world will feel safe, and the vast hotbed of instability that has appeared today will grow and prompt negative consequences in other regions of the world.
"For precisely these reasons, Russia demands the swiftest end to the military action," he said, speaking at a Kremlin meeting of top government officials.
Putin previously had offered only modest criticism of a U.S.-led war on Iraq, but on Thursday he went further than outspoken opponents such as French President Jacques Chirac. On Thursday, Chirac said only that he regretted the war. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder said the war was "the wrong decision."
The three leaders have led an effort to block attempts by the United States and Britain to pass a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. Together with China's Hu Jintao, they have maintained that it is up to the United Nations alone to verify whether Iraq has any weapons of mass destruction -- as Washington has claimed -- and to dispose of them.
"There was no need for military action to answer the main question posed by the international community: Does Iraq have weapons of mass destruction and, if it does, what must be done -- and in what time frame -- to liquidate them?" Putin said Thursday.
He warned that the military campaign could lead to an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe in the entire region but stressed he was "no less" concerned that the war threatens "the disintegration of the existing system of international security."
Putin said the war violates the UN Charter and argued that the UN Security Council, where Russia holds a permanent seat and has the right of veto, should lead efforts to solve the Iraq crisis.
"Russia intends to pursue an effort to put the situation back on a peaceful course and achieve a real solution in Iraq based on UN Security Council resolutions," he said.
Putin's critical remarks were echoed by his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. They described the military action a mistake and called for it to end.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II condemned the war and said he was praying for an end to bloodshed, Interfax reported.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who has been lambasting Washington for weeks over its plans, toned down his criticism Thursday. He said Russia should "continue its dialogue" with the United States in an attempt to convince it to revive efforts to "solve the Iraq problem by political means."
He also said there were no immediate plans to evacuate remaining diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Baghdad.
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said the Emergency Situations Ministry would send humanitarian aid to the region and contribute to any relief operation conducted under the aegis of the UN.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Kasyanov instructed Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu to deploy personnel and equipment to Iran to accommodate Iraqi refugees.
Four Il-76 transport planes carrying tents, blankets, beds and stoves will be sent to the Iranian city of Kermanshah shortly, Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Yury Brazhnikov said.
Brazhnikov said the supplies will help Kermanshah assist an expected influx of refugees from across the border.
The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, was more outspoken than Putin on Thursday, and some deputies called for military aid to be sent to Iraq.
The Duma, which previously postponed all other activities in anticipation of an attack, passed a resolution condemning the war and giving preliminary approval to an appeal for a special UN General Assembly session devoted to Iraq.
Deputies rejected an alternative Communist resolution calling for Russia to stop supporting the UN sanctions placed on Iraq after its 1991 invasion of Kuwait and start a boycott of U.S. goods and movies.
Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Duma's committee on international affairs and a member of the pro-government People's Deputy faction, said the Communists' proposal was an attempt to pull Russia into the war on Iraq's side.
"We must not participate in this venture in any way," said Rogozin, who led efforts to derail the hard-line resolution and pass the more modest one he helped draft.
Liberal deputies expressed confidence that Putin's tough rhetoric would not undermine Russia's relations with the United States.
"It does not mean that Russia's relations with U.S. and European partners will get worse," said Sergei Ivanenko, deputy head of Yabloko.
"Putin's statement was harsh, but it was a continuation of his earlier line and does not close the door to attempts to put the situation back on a peaceful track," Ivanenko said.
He added: "There has been a crack in relations between Russia and the U.S. over Iraq as of late, but it is a crack, not an abyss."
The upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, decided not to convene a special session. The chairman of its international affairs committee suggested that lawmakers from both chambers, government agencies and the business community team up to establish a special taskforce to formulate what Russia's policy in a post-war Iraq should be.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,81986,00.html
Moscow Denies Supplying Iraq With Weapons
Monday, March 24, 2003
FOX NEWS

MOSCOW — Russia denied Monday that it had sold sensitive military equipment -- including GPS jammers that could throw U.S. bombs and aircraft off course -- to Iraq in violation of U.N. sanction.
Other items reportedly included anti-tank guided missiles and night-vision goggles.
"The Russian Federation is not delivering weapons or weapons systems to Iraq and strictly observes all U.N. Security Council resolutions passed with regard to Iraq," Alexei Volin, deputy head of staff for the government, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
But the White House on Monday came out and said it has credible evidence Russian companies did sell weapons gear to Baghdad, calling the firms' actions "disturbing." The Bush administration asked Moscow again to halt the sales.
"The United States has credible evidence that Russian companies have provided assistance and prohibited hardware to the Iraqi regime, things such as night vision goggles, GPS jammers and antitank guided missiles," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
"These actions are disturbing and we have made our concerns clear to the Russian government. We've asked the Russian government that any such ongoing assistance cease immediately," Fleischer added.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that three Russian companies were involved in military equipment sales. Fox News confirmed that report. U.N. sanctions have allowed Iraq only to import goods approved by the oil-for-food program.
The State Department said it had raised the issue with senior Russian officials several times, particularly over the past two weeks, because the equipment could pose a direct threat to coalition forces. The United States even provided specific information regarding the transactions to Moscow in hopes the Russians would rein in the dealers.
But Friday was the last straw, as U.S. officials found out the Russian dealers were in Baghdad showing the Iraqis how to use the equipment.
The Russians "sure as hell should have been able to stop these guys," an official told the Post.
The U.S. government suspects that the Russians were hiding some of the jamming equipment in humanitarian aid flights to Baghdad, Fox News has learned. The boxes are about 3 ft. x 3 ft.
Volin called the allegations "not only groundless, but absolutely invented."
Also Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Iraq to obey international conventions on the humane treatment of prisoners of war after 12 American soldiers were ambushed and believed captured or killed.
Putin told top Cabinet ministers that he had asked the Foreign Ministry "to appeal to Iraq with an urgent request to comply with these particular rules."
The Post identified two of the firms that allegedly sold equipment as KBP Tula and Aviaconversiya, a Moscow-based company. It said KBP supplied antitank guided missiles and Aviaconversiya provided jamming devices.
Aviaconversiya director Oleg Antonov denied the claim, saying on Echo of Moscow radio that, "we have never delivered anything to Iraq."
He said the allegation was "conjecture resulting from the fact that tests of high-precision armaments revealed the total loss of their efficiency against our jamming."
The deputy director of Tula's instrument design office, Leonid Roshal, also denied the report, according to the news agency ITAR-Tass.
A spokesman for Russia's arms export agency, Rosoboronexport, said his organization "100 percent definitely had nothing to do with any sales and we have no information that such sales took place."
Rosoboronexport is the sole state intermediary for Russian military exports and imports.
A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Moscow said that Moscow's response to the allegations "so far hasn't been satisfactory."
"We hope that the responsible Russian agencies will take our concerns seriously," he said.
Fox News reported in January that Iraq may have obtained as many as 400 electronic "jammers" that could throw America's smart bombs off their programmed path if the U.S. goes to war.
There was "real concern at the highest levels" at the Pentagon that Baghdad may have purchased the jammers from a Russian firm, a senior defense official said then.
If the smart bombs are diverted from their designated targets, they may hit non-military sites and cause civilian casualties -- which could be used to Iraq's advantage.
The types of bombs whose courses may be altered by these jammers are called J-Dams -- for "joint direct attack munitions," guided by global satellites. These are the military's GPS-guided bombs. Each one costs about $21,000 and has a maximum range of 15 miles. J-Dams made their combat debut in Kosovo in 1999.
It's estimated that 80 percent of U.S. weapons that would be used in a war with Iraq would be directed via satellites.
The Air Force is now trying to test similar jammers to see if those used by an enemy can really work on U.S. weapons.
Defense officials confirm the extensive use of GPS-guided munitions, including Tomahawks, JDAMs, and the EGBU-27 used to hit the Iraqi leadership compound on Wednesday night. These are all being used throughout the country. All of the munitions used in Baghdad have been GPS-guided.
Fox News' Teri Schultz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82426,00.html
Putin Calls War Against Iraq the Most Serious Crisis Since Cold War
Friday, March 28, 2003
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called the U.S.-led war against Iraq the most serious crisis since the end of the Cold War and warned it threatened global stability.
The war is "in danger of rocking the foundations of global stability and international law," Putin said during a meeting with Russian lawmakers, segments of which were aired on Russian television.
He said the "only correct solution to the Iraqi problem is the immediate end to military activity in Iraq and resumption of a political settlement in the U.N. Security Council."
The Kremlin has been strongly critical of the U.S.-led war but insists its disagreement with Washington will not damage relations.
"The partnership character of relations with America will give us a basis for continuing our open dialogue," Putin said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Russian officials have expressed concern that Russian interests and companies, which have signed numerous contracts to develop Iraq's oil industry, will be pushed out by American companies in the war's aftermath. Baghdad also owes Russia about $8.5 billion in Soviet-era debt.
Russia "has never made its position on Iraq directly dependent on economic factors or economic advantages," Putin was quoted by Interfax as saying. "The economy is an important part of politics but if we make a mistake in the political assessment of the situation, we will in the end lose out also in the economic."
Putin urged lawmakers to act pragmatically and "leave emotions on the side" when dealing with the crisis.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../13/wrus13.xml/
Revealed: Russia spied on Blair for Saddam
By David Harrison
(Filed: 13/04/2003)

Top secret documents obtained by The Telegraph in Baghdad show that Russia provided Saddam Hussein's regime with wide-ranging assistance in the months leading up to the war, including intelligence on private conversations between Tony Blair and other Western leaders.
Moscow also provided Saddam with lists of assassins available for "hits" in the West and details of arms deals to neighbouring countries. The two countries also signed agreements to share intelligence, help each other to "obtain" visas for agents to go to other countries and to exchange information on the activities of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qa'eda leader.
The documents detailing the extent of the links between Russia and Saddam were obtained from the heavily bombed headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service in Baghdad yesterday.
The sprawling complex, which for years struck fear into Iraqis, has been the target of looters and ordinary Iraqis searching for information about relatives who disappeared during Saddam's rule.
The documents, in Arabic, are mostly intelligence reports from anonymous agents and from the Iraqi embassy in Moscow. Tony Blair is referred to in a report dated March 5, 2002 and marked: "Subject - SECRET." In the letter, an Iraqi intelligence official explains that a Russian colleague had passed him details of a private conversation between Mr Blair and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, at a meeting in Rome. The two had met for an annual summit on February 15, 2002, in Rome.
The document says that Mr Blair "referred to the negative things decided by the United States over Baghdad". It adds that Mr Blair refused to engage in any military action in Iraq at that time because British forces were still in Afghanistan and that nothing could be done until after the new Kabul government had been set up.
It is not known how the Russians obtained such potentially sensitive information, but the revelation that Moscow passed it on to Baghdad is likely to have a devastating effect on relations between Britain and Russia and come as a personal blow to Mr Blair. The Prime Minister declared a "new era" in relations with President Putin when they met in Moscow in October 2001 in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks.
In spite of warnings by the British intelligence and security services of increasing Russian espionage in the West, Mr Blair fostered closer relations with Mr Putin, visiting his family dacha near Moscow, supporting the Russians in their war in Chechnya, and arranging for the Russian president to have tea with the Queen.
Mr Blair was surprised and dismayed when Mr Putin joined France in threatening to veto the American and British resolution on Iraq in the UN, but continued to differentiate between President Putin and President Jacques Chirac.
The Prime Minister refused to join the French, German and Russian leaders in their summit on Iraq this weekend, but still regarded Mr Putin as an ally in global politics.
The list of assassins is referred to in a paper dated November 27, 2000. In it, an agent signing himself "SAB" says that the Russians have passed him a detailed list of killers. The letter does not describe any assignments that the assassins might be given but it indicates just how much Moscow was prepared to share with Baghdad. Another document, dated March 12, 2002, appears to confirm that Saddam had developed, or was developing nuclear weapons. The Russians warned Baghdad that if it refused to comply with the United Nations then that would give the United States "a cause to destroy any nuclear weapons".
A letter from the Iraqi embassy in Moscow shows that Russia kept Iraq informed about its arms deals with other countries in the Middle East. Correspondence, dated January 27, 2000, informed Baghdad that in 1999 Syria bought rockets from Russia in two separate batches valued at $65 million (£41 million) and $73 million (£46 million). It also says that Egypt bought surface-to-air missiles from Russia and that Kuwait - Saddam's old enemy - wanted to buy Russian arms to the value of $1 billion. The Russians also informed Iraq that China had bought military aircraft from Russia and Israel at the end of 1999.
Moscow also passed on information of Russians who could help Iraqi politicians obtain visas to go to many Western countries.
The name of Osama bin Laden appears in a number of Russian reports. Several give details of his support for the rebels in Chechnya. They say bin Laden had built two training camps in Afghanistan, near the Iranian border, to train mujahideen fighters for Russia's rebel republic. The camps could each hold 300 fighters, who were all funded by bin Laden.
Training materials found at the complex give insight into the Iraqi intelligence gathering methods. One certificate shows that a Rashid Jassim had passed an advance course in lock-picking.
Other papers found at the headquarters include reports on the succession in Saudi Arabia and on US-Yemen relations.
The intimate relationship between Baghdad and Moscow is further illustrated by copies of Christmas cards - in the Christian tradition - sent by Taher Jalil Habosh, the head of the Iraqi intelligence service, to his Kremlin counterpart.
Russia has been a key ally of Baghdad since the 1970s and was one of Saddam's main arms suppliers. The Iraqis are understood to owe Moscow more than £8 billion for arms shipments. Russian oil companies had longed to forge links with Saddam Hussein to help develop Iraq's vast oil reserves.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83617,00.html
Russia Meets With French, German Leaders About Iraq War
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
Associated Press

MOSCOW — The leaders of France, Russia and Germany -- chief European opponents of the U.S.-led war in Iraq -- will be in St. Petersburg this weekend for meetings on Iraq's reconstruction.
French President Jacques Chirac will be in St. Petersburg on Friday and Saturday, the Kremlin said. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was already slated to meet with President Vladimir Putin in the former imperial capital on those days. The schedule of meetings, or whether all three leaders would meet at once, wasn't clear.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also was planning to visit at Putin's invitation, but he canceled those plans Tuesday.
Instead, he accepted an invitation to next week's European Union summit in Athens, Greece. A U.N. announcement said the change means Annan can meet with EU leadership as well as representatives of EU member nations.
Chirac said Putin had invited him and Schroeder "to discuss all aspects of the situation" in Iraq. The visit will also be "an occasion to discuss postwar Iraq," he said.
The visits come amid international discussion of the role of the United Nations -- and of countries not participating in the U.S.-led coalition -- in the reconstruction of Iraq.
The United States remains at odds with much of the council on what that role should be.
France, Germany and Russia oppose war in Iraq, and pushed for extended U.N. weapons inspections as an alternative to military force.
President Bush says the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq must lead efforts to rebuild Iraq. The European Union wants the United Nations to be a major player.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,81917,00.html
Russian Dealers Provide Iraq With Supplies, Electronics
Sunday, March 23, 2003
By Liza Porteus
FOX NEWS

WASHINGTON — Russian arms dealers have equipped Iraq with supplies and electronic jamming equipment that could throw U.S. planes and bombs off course, Fox News has confirmed.
The Washington Post first reported Sunday that Bush administration sources reported that a Russian company is helping the Iraqi military deploy global-positioning system jammers to Baghdad. Two other companies have sold anti-tank missiles and thousands of night-vision goggles in violation of U.N. sanctions.
The United States protested the aid to the Russian government on Saturday for not doing more to stop the transactions, the Post reported.
Fox News confirmed that Russians were in fact selling the equipment to Baghdad and that Russian technicians were in the Iraqi capital this week, instructing Iraqis on how to use the devices. Russians were in Baghdad as of Friday but it's not known whether they have left.
"We are very concerned about reports that Russian firms are selling militarily sensitive equipment to Iraq," State Department spokeswoman Brenda Greenberg told Fox News. "Such equipment in the hands of the Iraqi military may pose a direct threat to U.S. and coalition armed forces."
During more than a year of talks, the Russian officials initially denied the existence of the company that sold the electronic jammers, U.S. officials said. Later, the Russians said they were closely monitoring the company.
"The stuff's there, it's on the ground and they're trying to use it against us," a U.S. official told the Post. Of the Russians, the official said: "This is a disregard for human life. It sickens my stomach."
U.S. officials say they provided Russian authorities with names, addresses and phone numbers -- and in some cases, shipping dates and ports of exit -- of people involved in the sales so that Moscow could deal with it.
"We regard this as a very serious matter and thus have raised it with the Russian government at very high levels over the past two weeks," Greenberg told Fox News. "The response so far has not been satisfactory. We hope the responsible Russian agencies will take our concerns seriously."
With regard to night-vision goggles, U.S. intelligence agencies have seen some of the contracts -- required by international law -- in which the Russian government had to certify the end user of the equipment. In almost all cases, that end user was Yemen or Syria -- although Yemen has declared itself an allied partner in the war on terror. U.S. officials believe that the Yemeni or Syrian governments made sure the equipment got safely to Baghdad.
Saddam Hussein's regime has upped its stockpile of anti-tank guided missiles produced by a company called KBP Tula, the Post reported. The United States hit this company with sanctions last year for selling anti-tank weapons to Syria, officials said.
But Iraq bought a "militarily significant quantity" of Kornet missiles from that company in the past two months, reports the Post, and Putin's government was notified.
The White House voiced the greatest opposition to the jamming devices, which officials said sell for thousands of dollars each and were sold by the Moscow-based manufacturer, Aviaconversiya, the Post reported. Protests were first lodged in June 2002.
These devices were initially imported to counter U.S. and British jets patrolling the "no-fly" zones of northern and southern Iraq, U.S. officials told the Post, and were deployed last week when coalition forces began to attack Baghdad.
Russian officials have even been summoned to Washington to discuss these issues. U.S. officials were angered when they found out last week that the Russian firms were showing Iraqis how to use and fix the equipment.
The Russians "sure as hell should have been able to stop these guys," an official told the Post.
The U.S. government suspects that the Russians were hiding some of the jamming equipment in humanitarian aid flights to Baghdad, Fox News has learned. The boxes are about 3 ft. x 3 ft.
Fox News reported in January that Iraq may have obtained as many as 400 electronic "jammers" that could throw America's smart bombs off their programmed path if the U.S. goes to war.
There was "real concern at the highest levels" at the Pentagon that Baghdad may have purchased the jammers from a Russian firm, a senior defense official said then.
Officials said that if the smart bombs are diverted from their designated targets, no one knows what, or whom, they might hit instead. The worst-case scenario is they might fall on civilian sites and kill innocent people, causing collateral damage.
The types of bombs whose courses may be altered by these jammers are called J-Dams -- for "joint direct attack munitions," guided by global satellites. These are the military's GPS-guided bombs. Each one costs about $21,000 and has a maximum range of 15 miles. J-Dams made their combat debut in Kosovo in 1999.
It's estimated that 80 percent of U.S. weapons that would be used in a war with Iraq would be directed via satellites.
The Air Force is now trying to test similar jammers to see if those used by an enemy can really work on U.S. weapons.
Fox News' Foreign Affairs Analyst Marc Ginsberg, a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, said Sunday that Arab television channels are reporting that the United States is angry at Russia over the GPS jamming devices, in part because the Pentagon had to slow down its bombing of Baghdad for fear that the bombs would hit civilian targets.
Defense officials confirm the extensive use of GPS-guided munitions, including Tomahawks, JDAMs, and the EGBU-27 used to hit the Iraqi leadership compound on Wednesday night. These are all being used throughout the country. All of the munitions used in Baghdad have been GPS-guided.
Fox News' Teri Schultz contributed to this report.

[ABLAT Staff]

Saddam Hussein Speaks:
I Prepared Current Guerrilla War Ahead of Invasion. Syria Is Next
January 2, 2005
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

On December 16, the deposed Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein was allowed to see
his lawyer, Khalil Duleimi for the first time. With no one else present and
no time limit, Saddam spoke his mind freely. Later, the lawyer went straight
from Saddam’s cell to Amman to confer with the rest of the legal team, which
Ramsey Clark, Lyndon Johnson’s attorney general, had meanwhile joined. Clark
explained he felt the need to defend the former Iraqi president’s rights. He
declare the special court set up by the interim Iraqi government to try
Saddam was not legal and that the United States should be tried instead for
its assault on Fallujah, abuse of Iraqi prisoners and responsibility for the
death of thousands of Iraqis in the course of the war.

After briefing the legal team, Duleimi granted an interview to the Lebanese
journalist Shahbana Khalil, who had been very close to the Saddam when he
was in power. He conferred on her a number of decorations and gave her
exclusive stories on happenings in Iraq and the Arab world.

DEBKAfile’s Exclusive Middle East sources reveal here the main contents of
the Duleimi’s briefing to his fellow lawyers and the account of his
conversation with Saddam to his journalist friend.

The ex-ruler is in good health, the lawyer reported, and says he is in even
better shape physically than he was in March 2003 ahead of the war. Now and
again he gets sharp twinges of pain in his left shin.

Saddam is confined to a cell of five by three meters with no window.
Sometimes he is let out to a 15 by 5 meter unroofed hall where he can see
the sky. The food he says is good. The American warders do not talk to him
but the Iraqi officers who accompany them address him as “Mr. President.”

The former Iraqi dictator is cut off from the outside world. Despite some
reports, he has no access to newspapers, radio or television. He has
received only two letters from his close family, the contents of which were
mostly deleted or cut out by the censors. He spends most of his time writing
but would not disclose his subjects, except to say that some of it is
poetry. Duleimi quoted a line of Saddam’s “verse:” “If you can’t be the
head, don’t be the backside because there is nothing there but a tail.”

He had two main gripes. One was that the Americans will not let him shave
his beard despite his repeated requests. He even offered to let a US
military barber shave him, but they refused. His theory is that the
Americans want to make sure that whenever he appears in public, as he did on
June 30, 2004 before an Iraqi investigating judge, he will look confused,
unkempt and too low in spirits to bother to shave.

His second complaint was against the Red Cross workers. He wanted their
visits stopped because he said they are neither polite nor respectful.

Duleimi spent four hours talking to Saddam Hussein alone in his cell. The
conversation was interrupted twice when the ex-ruler performed Muslim
ablution rites and prayed. He said he had read the small Koran with him many
times from beginning to end.

He also asked the lawyer for news from the outside world. He did not know
that Spain had pulled its troops out of Iraq after the March 2004 Madrid
rail attack, but was pleased to hear it. He had not known of Yasser Arafat’s
death last November but made no comment.

After hearing Duleimi out, Saddam asked to convey his regards to three
people: the American lawyer Ramsey Clark for joining his defense, Malaysian
ex-prime minister Mahathir Mohammed, and independent British party leader
George Galloway (whom the London Telegraph had to pay $150,000 in damages
for reporting he was bribed to support Saddam Hussein).

He also asked to send his respects to the Egyptian journalist Mustafa Bakri
who has a program on Arabic al Jazeera television. DEBKAfile and
DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources reported in the past that, before
the Saddam regime was overthrown, Bakri was in cahoots with Iraqi
intelligence officials at Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

The next part of the conversation Saddam devoted to a long dissertation on
the situation in Iraq, past and present. Recalling the Muslim adage advising
believers to stick together and cling to Allah, he stressed that Sunnis and
Shiites must not fight but join forces in order to muster strength to stand
up to the American conqueror.

“Baghdad,” he said “did not surrender nor was it conquered by the Americans
but was their captive.” He claimed they had attempted to kill him in the
Azamaya district of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, but failed.

Two days later, he called together the military commanders serving in the
capital and its environs. They informed him they had run out of troops for
conducting the war. It was then, Saddam said, “I ordered the transition to
guerrilla warfare. I told the commanders: the Americans will stretch out
full length across Iraq like a viper. That will be the moment to attack and
lop off each section one by one.” The deposed president bragged: “All the
insurgency and guerrilla operations in progress are the fruit of my decision
and my pre-planning.”

Saddam admitted that there had been treachery on the part of “a very small
group of Iraqi military men and politicians.” However, those who needed to
know did know that the real combat against the Americans would only begin
after they entered Baghdad. “That is why I ordered all the office-holders of
my regime to carry on with their duties, despite the difficulties.”

He went on to disclose that, during the six months leading up to the war,
several offers came from Israeli and Western sources of a deal whereby
sanctions against Iraq would be called off and diplomatic relations with
Washington resumed if he extended recognition to Israel. But he claims to
have refused, maintaining it was impossible and forbidden to relinquish holy
land.

When Duleimi informed him that five million Iranians infiltrated Iraq in
advance of the January 30 elections to register as voters, Saddam retorted:
“This is nothing new as far as the Persian traitors are concerned. We always
knew they wanted to grab southern Iraq and that this was the objective of
the Badr Brigades. Now the Americans are discovering this for themselves.”

But, he added, in any case, the Americans and Allawi will not succeed in
bringing the elections off. They will fail, he declared.

Finally, the former Iraqi president said: “I fear for Syria. I warned Bashar
Assad that the Americans had not only targeted Iraq, but Syria too.”

DEBKAfile’s military sources add:

Saddam Hussein touched inadvertently on the most burning issue between the
Bush administration and Iraq’s interim prime minister Iyad Alawi. Ever since
the December 21 suicide attack on the US forward base in Mosul, when 22
Americans were killed, Allawi has been urging Washington to launch attacks
from Iraq on points in Syria – singling out military locations known to
intelligence as bases used to assist and train terrorists preparatory to
their infiltration of Iraq. The Iraqi prime minister believes that without
military action against Syria, three key goals will remain out of reach:

1. A general election on January 30 orderly enough to be a success.

2. An effective deterrent to Tehran’s meddling in Iraq.

3. Victory in the war against the guerrillas.

Sunday, January 2, US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage arrives in
Damascus with a final warning from Washington. The Syrian ruler will be
informed that the administration is closer than ever before to acceding to
Allawi’s demand.

http://www.debka.com/article_print.php?aid=959

[ABLAT Staff]

Pentagon Ousts Official Who Tied Russia, Iraq Arms
December 30, 2004
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A Pentagon official who publicly disclosed information showing Russian
involvement in moving Iraqi weapons out of that country has been dismissed.

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international
technology security and formerly an aide to Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld, was forced to leave his position Dec. 10 as the result of a
"reorganization" that eliminated his job, defense officials said.

Mr. Shaw said he had been asked to resign for "exceeding his authority" in
disclosing the information, a charge he called "specious."

In October, Mr. Shaw told The Washington Times that he had received foreign
intelligence data showing that Russian special forces units were involved in
an effort to remove Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in the
weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in March 2003.

In a letter to Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Shaw said that information about the covert
Russian role in moving Iraqi arms to Syria, Lebanon and possibly Iran was
discussed during a meeting that included retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James
Clapper, head of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency; the head of
Britain's MI6 intelligence service; and the head of a foreign intelligence
service that he did not name.

The Pentagon office was conducting "research focused on analyzing Russian
documents to determine the pattern of acquisition and dispersal of weaponry
in the pre-war period," Mr. Shaw said in the Dec. 3 letter. A copy was
obtained by The Washington Times.

The Defense Intelligence Agency has been fully briefed on the Russian covert
arms removal, and Mr. Shaw expected additional information from foreign
sources to produce more details, he wrote to Mr. Rumsfeld.

Reports of the Russian role in dispersing Iraqi arms made news during the
final days of the presidential election campaign, at a time when the Bush
administration was being criticized for failing to secure tons of Iraqi high
explosives that could be used in developing nuclear arms.

Mr. Shaw went public to counter a political "October surprise" campaign
designed to "crucify the president" over the missing explosives, he wrote to
Mr. Rumsfeld.

"The Kerry media-driven October surprise attack on us and the president
stopped within hours," Mr. Shaw wrote. "If I had not had the openly hostile
environment in [Pentagon public affairs], I would have moved the story
differently. Getting the truth out instantly was more important than
process."

After Mr. Shaw's disclosures, the Pentagon released spy satellite
photographs of Iraqi weapons facilities that showed truck convoys at the
plants, apparently in preparation to move materials. Further corroborating
Mr. Shaw's account, a Russian newspaper reported that two retired Russian
generals had received awards from Saddam's government 10 days before the
coalition assault on Iraq began.

Mr. Shaw directed a Pentagon program called the Iraq Technology Transfer
List that identified foreign weapons and technology discovered in Iraq after
the March 2003 invasion.

In his December letter to Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Shaw complained that he had been
targeted by "senior members" in the secretary's office.

"I cannot in good conscience resign at this time," Mr. Shaw stated. "I
cannot submit my resignation to you until it is clear that this
well-orchestrated campaign to obstruct justice and suppress the findings of
my office has been properly addressed and stopped."

Mr. Shaw singled out Mr. Rumsfeld's chief of staff, Larry DiRita, and other
officials for attempting to "suborn the office of the inspector general"
after Mr. Shaw uncovered "a major [Coalition Provisional Authority] fraud
and corruption case involving various [Department of Defense] figures."

Mr. DiRita called Mr. Shaw's charges "absurd and without any foundation."

"He has been directed on several occasions to produce evidence of his
wide-ranging and fantastic charges and provide it to the DoD inspector
general," Mr. DiRita said in an interview. "To my knowledge, he has not done
so."

Mr. DiRita declined to comment on specific accusations made by Mr. Shaw.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041229-113041-1647r.htm

[ABLAT Staff]

Ukraine Blames Russia for the Loss of Shoulder-Fired Missiles
February 28, 2005
Pravda

The news about the loss of the shoulder-fired missile system has caused a slight commotion in the Ukrainian Army

The shoulder-fired anti-aircraft system Strela-3, which has been lost in Ukraine, as the Ukrainian Navy command supposes, was handed over to Ukraine in 1996. According to the statement from the press service of the Russian Black Sea Navy, the system was handed over to the Ukrainian Navy on the base of adequate documents, signed by Ukrainian officials.

Mass media outlets published the statement from the commander of the Ukrainian Navy, Vice Admiral Igor Knyaz, last Wednesday. The Ukrainian naval commander believes that the Strela-3 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft system and two missiles to it were probably lost during the time, when a part of the Russian Black Sea Navy property was handed over to Ukraine. It is noteworthy that Igor Knyaz released the statement a day before the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement in Bratislava to toughen the control over shoulder-fired missiles.

"The command of the Russian Black Sea Navy would like to express its regret in connection with the absolutely ungrounded statement from the administration of the Ukrainian Navy," Itar-Tass quoted the press service of the Russian Navy.

It is not clear, though, why the doors of the warehouse, from which the above-mentioned anti-aircraft system and two missiles disappeared, had their seals removed. Furthermore, it is not clear, why the Ukrainian authorities found the system missing only eight years after it was "lost." Spokespeople for the Russian Navy have not released any comments on those nuances.

The incident occurred early in the morning on February 22nd. A Strela-3 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft system and two missiles disappeared from a military warehouse of the Ukrainian Navy. The loss was found after an urgent stock inspection was carried out at several warehouses. It was decided to conduct the inspection after a sentry frightened two strangers off the guarded territory. The sentry checked the doors of the warehouse and found that the seal on the gate of one of the warehouses was removed, whereas the doors of another warehouse had the lock missing.

The office of the Military Prosecutor and the Ukrainian Security Service started investigating the incident; a criminal case was filed too.

The news about the loss of the shoulder-fired missile system has caused a slight commotion in the Ukrainian Army. Igor Matviyenko, Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian Navy, visited the site of the incident and chaired the special committee, which had been formed to investigate it.

The portable anti-aircraft missile complex Strela-3 was developed in the USSR in the beginning of the 1960s. The system was added to the military arsenal in 1968 and was modified in 1974. The system shoots missiles at the distance of 3.5-4 kilometers. The weapon can be used to down low-flying aircrafts, as they land or take off, for example.

Russian Armed Forces replaced the outdated Strela-3 complex with the Igla shoulder-fired missile system. The Strela complex is not viewed as an efficient weapon to down military planes now. However, the weapon can destroy helicopters and passenger planes.

Warehouses of the Russian Armed Forces and many other states of the former USSR have Strela complexes stored at their warehouses. They often become objects of theft. Ten Strela-1 systems were stolen in Russia's Leningrad region in July of 2003. The region's Office of the Military Prosecutor solved the case the same month: a suspect was arrested, and the ten missing complexes were returned to the warehouse.

Another similar incident occurred in October of 2004 in Georgia. The case is still unsolved.

http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/370/15029_strela.html

[Theps]

UKRAINE
Ukraine ex-minister kills himself
Anya Tsukanova
Posted Fri, 04 Mar 2005

Ukraine's former interior minister Yury Kravchenko, implicated in a murder of an opposition journalist, was found dead at his country home on Friday with suicide as the probable cause of death, the interior ministry said.

Spokesperson Inna Kissel told AFP by telephone that Kravchenko, who on Friday was due to be questioned over the notorious 2000 slaying of Georgy Gongadze, was found dead at home in the elite village of Konche-Zaspa outside Kiev.

"It appears to be a suicide," she said.

Law enforcement sources told AFP that Kravchenko died of a gunshot wound. A team headed by the chief of the SBU intelligence service Oleksandr Turchinov was examining the scene.

The death comes two days after Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun said that authorities had arrested two police officers as Gongadze's alleged assassins, that they knew who had ordered the murder, and that Kravchenko would be questioned in connection with the case on Friday.

Gongadze, who had been frequently critical of former president Leonid Kuchma in articles in his Internet newspaper, Ukrainska Pravda, disappeared in September 2000 and his headless body was found in woods outside Kiev two months later.

His murder became a symbol of corruption in the ousted regime of Kuchma after several top officials, including Kuchma himself, were implicated in the slaying in tapes smuggled out of the country by Kuchma's former bodyguard.

The killing triggered widespread opposition to the government that culminated with last year's "orange revolution" protests that brought Viktor Yushchenko — who nearly died from poisoning during the election campaign — to power.


AFP

[ABLAT Staff]

Russian Ambassodor to Iraq in Talks with Anti-American Shiite Leader Al-Sadr
Created: 13.06.2005 13:38 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:41 MSK , 8 hours 38 minutes ago


MosNews

The Russian ambassador to Iraq flew to this southern city Monday and started talks with the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the Associated Press news agency reported on Monday quoting a source in the Russian embassy.

Ambassador Vlidimer Chamov was making the first visit by a Russian envoy to al-Sadr’s office since the war in Iraq started two years ago, embassy protocol chief Ivan Zhurba said.

Zhurba had no details on the purpose of the talks, but both Russia and al-Sadr were fierce opponents of the war.

The talks come amid a raging insurgency that has killed more than 940 people since Iraq’s new Shiite-led government was announced April 28.

Sheik Jalil al-Nouri, an al-Sadr aide in Najaf, confirmed that the talks had started and that a delegation of Sunni tribal leaders from the volatile Anbar province towns of Ramadi and Fallujah was expected to meet with al-Sadr later.

“The meeting was held to develop the relationship between Russia and Muqtada al-Sadr because the al-Sadr movement is very influential and well-known in Iraq,” al-Nouri said without providing further details.

He added that the meeting had nothing to do with al-Sadr’s talks with the Anbar delegation.

Al-Sadr has recently taken on a higher public profile after emerging from months of hiding following clashes last year between U.S. troops and his own militiamen in Baghdad’s impoverished Sadr City and Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad.

The fiery cleric, who violently opposes the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, has been negotiating between Shiite and Sunni groups who have accused each other of killing clerics from each community.


http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/06/13/assadr.shtml

[ABLAT Staff]

There's a guy on Fox right now (Gen Georges Sada) stating that Saddams WMD's were tranferred to Syria and Hezbolla probably has them now!

By Nick Wadhams
ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:52 p.m. July 19, 2006

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council is in no rush to pressure Iran over its suspect nuclear program, Russia said Wednesday, striking a more conciliatory tone than the United States as diplomats began discussing a resolution to put legal muscle behind demands that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment.
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the council wants an answer sometime soon to a June 5 package of incentives that six world powers offered to Iran if it stopped enrichment. But he stressed the council is not trying to push Tehran.

“We are not in a rush at all,” Churkin said. “We do not want to ambush Iran in any way. We're very much in a negotiating political mode. We do not want to dictate things to Iran.”
“Nobody's pushing Iran anywhere,” he said.

Churkin's remarks seemed distinctly more relaxed than the message that was sent on July 12, when foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.S. met and expressed disappointment that Iran had failed to respond positively to the package.

They referred the issue back to the Security Council and asked that members adopt a resolution making Iran's suspension of enrichment activities mandatory.

The Russian tone contrasted with Washington's. The U.S. has been vocal in its frustration with the Iranian response so far.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Washington had instructed him to get a resolution on Iran passed by the end of the week. But with the council so busy on Lebanon, and negotiations on Iran likely to take several days, other diplomats said that seemed unlikely.

The five permanent members of the council met Wednesday to trade ideas about the language of a new resolution. The dynamic appeared to be the same as it was when the council haggled over a statement confronting Iran's nuclear ambitions in March: China and Russia looking for weaker action, with Britain, France and the U.S. seeking a tough response.

While an outline for a draft exists, the negotiations are now focused on the complex diplomatic language of Security Council resolutions – for example, which article of the U.N. Charter to cite as authority.

Bolton said the council diplomats agreed that the resolution must be legally binding, as their foreign ministers had said earlier in July. But beyond that, they were still working.

“What we have not reached agreement on is the precise formulation of the words that will do that,” he said.

A draft circulated by the United States calls for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, and other international experts to verify Iran's suspension of uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium can be used to produce both nuclear power or weapons. Iran has said its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

The draft did not set a deadline for Iran to comply.

Russia offered an amended resolution on Wednesday that would weaken the document significantly, but would ask the IAEA to report back on Iran's compliance by August 31.

In remarks to reporters, Churkin did urge Iran to respond as soon as possible to the incentives package. If it does so, he said, the whole process of a council resolution could be avoided.

“We keep hearing from Iran that their attitude is supposed to be constructive, so if this is the case we hope ... a possible response will come because the offer is so generous,” he said.

Iran said Sunday that the incentives package was an “acceptable basis” for talks, and invited world powers to enter detailed negotiations over its disputed nuclear program.

But that was not the direct, formal response that the council wanted, and diplomats are still going ahead with a resolution.


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/2...an-nuclear.html