Summitry does have its limits, but the latest action by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and its timing sets something of a record:
Iran and Russia ignored U.S. objections and signed a nuclear fuel agreement Sunday that is key to bringing Tehran’s first reactor online by mid-2006.
The long-delayed deal, signed at the heavily guarded Bushehr nuclear facility in southern Iran, dramatized President Bush’s failure to persuade the Russians to curtail support for the Iranian nuclear program during his summit with Vladimir Putin on Thursday in Slovakia.
Under the deal, Russia will provide nuclear fuel to Iran, then take back the spent fuel, a step meant as a safeguard to ensure it cannot be diverted into a weapons program. Iran has also agreed to allow the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to monitor Bushehr and the fuel deliveries.
This is yet one more issue on which Putin has taken a stand squarely against U.S. interests. And then there is the timing: coming just three days after the summit. Even worse, some of the details remain murky, indeed:
Both officials refused to discuss the details of shipping the nuclear fuel to Iran and the spent fuel back to Russia, but they insisted that the agreement conforms to international nuclear regulations.
“Iran observes all the regulations on the prohibition of the spread of nuclear weapons,” (Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency chief) Rumyantsev said.
Notably, the White House and State Department declined comment but Arizona Senator John McCain hasn’t. He urges the United States to seek to bar Russia from this year’s G8 summit in protest. He points to this and other actions by Putin: “This latest step of the Russians vis-a-vis the Iranians calls for sterner measures to be taken between ourselves and Russia. It has got to, at some point, begin to harm our relations,” he said.
Since he has assumed power, Putin has put himself increasingly at odds with U.S. stands and interests.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.