Medvedev Says Russia May Back Sanctions on Iran if Deal Falls Apart

November 8, 2009

By ELLEN BARRY

MOSCOW — President Dmitri A. Medvedev said Russia might back sanctions against Iran if the Iranians did not take a “constructive position” on an international plan to temporarily diminish their stockpile of enriched uranium.

The statement, made in an interview with Der Spiegel and released by the Kremlin, resembles one Mr. Medvedev made in September after meeting with President Obama in New York. But it takes on added significance now because Iran has equivocated on the international agreement. That deal would require Iran to ship its low-enriched uranium out of the country for processing, easing fears that the fuel would be used for nuclear bombs.

“If agreements are reached on the programs linked to uranium enrichment and its use for peaceful purposes in Iran, we will with pleasure take part in these programs,” Mr. Medvedev said. “If the Iranian leadership takes a less constructive position, then anything is possible, in theory.

“We would not want this to end in imposing sanctions under international law, because sanctions, as a rule, are a complex and dangerous path,” he continued. “But if there is no forward movement, no one can rule out this scenario.”

Russia has traditionally opposed sanctions against Iran, which it considers an important regional ally. In September, Mr. Medvedev signaled a policy shift after meeting with Mr. Obama, but Moscow remained reluctant; as recently as last month, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov called sanctions “counterproductive.” Still, Moscow may be left with no choice if Iran rejects the uranium enrichment plan, which Russia helped draft under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

During meetings with his British counterpart last week, Mr. Lavrov said he expected the plan “to be approved by all sides without exception, including Iran.”

“In a sense, I think this is a red line,” said Vladimir Sotnikov, an Iran analyst at the Center for International Security in Moscow. “What I think is that probably Russia will try again to postpone this red line as much as possible. But Iran is not giving Russia a choice.”

News of the accord — supported by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — led to a political uproar in Iran, where his critics said the country was giving up too much to the West. Tehran then began backing away from the deal, saying it would not abide by the original terms but that it had alternative proposals.

On Saturday, a senior Iranian lawmaker kept up the pressure on the government to reject the deal. The lawmaker, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, told the semiofficial news agency ISNA that the deal was “called off,” although he also said that Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the I.A.E.A., was “in talks” to try to find alternatives to the deal.

Mr. Boroujerdi rejected the notion that there was a deadline for responding to the deal.

Under the original plan, the country would have been required to send about three-quarters of its current known stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia for conversion into a form it could use only in a peaceful nuclear reactor. If Iran’s stated estimate of its stockpile of fuel is accurate, the deal would leave the country with too little fuel to make a weapon until the stockpile was replenished.

American officials said they thought that the accord would give them a year or so to seek a broader nuclear agreement with Iran while defusing the possibility that Israel might try to attack Iran’s nuclear installations.

Mr. Medvedev’s latest comments on sanctions came in a wide-ranging interview with Der Spiegel, just ahead of a visit to Germany for the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Among the topics he discussed was the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty; he said that Washington and Moscow “have every chance” to complete a renegotiation “and sign a legally binding document by the end of this year.”

Mr. Medvedev also suggested — as he does regularly — that his views on Soviet history differed from those of his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who is widely considered the de facto leader of the country. Asked if he agreed with Mr. Putin’s oft-quoted statement that the collapse of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century,” Mr. Medvedev called the collapse “a very serious, dramatic event” that divided the Soviet people.

But his answer seemed to be no. “I think the Second World War is no less serious a catastrophe in the 20th century, and if you consider its consequences, a much more serious tragedy,” he said. “And the revolution of 1917 in our country was accompanied by a civil war, in which relatives fought against each other, and friends shot each other. Wasn’t that a catastrophe?”

Robert F. Worth contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.