By Vestnik Kavkaza
Last week, several American congressmen expressed doubts about possible agreements between Iran and “5+1” of international mediators and urged new sanctions against Tehran. Even though Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama spoke against a stiffening of sanctions, Tehran states that if Congress approves new sanctions, the talks with “5+1” will be stopped.
Meanwhile, the Iranian nuclear program remains one of key moments of Russian-American disputes. Explaining the essence of the situation over Iran, Alexei Fesenko, senior scientist of the Institute of International Security Problems of the RAS, told Vestnik Kavkaza: “The United States insists on the reconsideration of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. They deny Iran’s right to enrichment, while the 4th article of the NPT states that all non-nuclear countries have a right to nuclear power. Russia believes that the U.S. tries to reconsider the NPT.
Secondly, the Americans always blame Russia for commercial contacts with Iran, but they have never blamed France and Germany for building the whole current nuclear infrastructure of Iran, except for the Busher nuclear power station. So, Russia suspects that America allows France and Germany do something and doesn’t allow Russia do the same thing. Why? The Americans don’t consider us as privileged partners as France and Germany.
Finally, the scheme of possible disarmament of Iran concerns Russia as well. Isn’t it a precedent for future possible influence on Russia? Through the mechanism of sanctions, through elimination of some components of a nuclear cycle, and so on. Thus, Russia believes that by protection of Iran and the Iranian nuclear program, we protect not Iran, but ourselves. And I think it is the fundamental dispute between Russia and the U.S. since the crisis of 1995.”
“As for Syria, the situation is the same,” Fenenko believes. “Russia denied America’s right to deprive “problematic” regimes, from its point of view, of mass destruction weapon. In 1993 Clinton’s administration declared the Counter-Proliferation Strategy. If there is a dangerous regime which doesn’t follow the international law, the NPT, and other treaties, the U.S. has a right to disarm the regime forcibly, as a guarantor of the world order. In the Syrian crisis, Russia shows clearly that it won’t accept this right of the U.S., that it insists that only joint actions on disarmament and only through the UN Security Council should force be used. Due to political conditions, the Americans had to agree with this, because their closes allies didn’t support them – the UK and France which America relied on in the Syrian conflict since 2011, according to the Libyan scenario. They refused. But I don’t think the Americans will ever forget this unpleasant thing, and Russia should be prepared for counteractions by the U.S.A.”
At the same time, Moscow prepares for Geneva-2. Yesterday the Syrian governmental delegation talked to Russian colleagues on the topic. Earlier Qadri Jamil, Secretary of the People’s Will Party, stated: “At the lowest estimate, both sides of the conflict admit that there are more than 100,000 casualties today in Syria. Nobody mentions the wounded. Their number is threefold and fourfold bigger than the number of the killed. Nobody mentions those who have been made disabled – hundreds of thousands of people. Nobody recalls the number of orphans who lost their parents and relatives. Nobody recalls a number of widows, women who lost their husbands. And I ask: if the situation remains the same for another 6 months, where would Syria come to?”
Jamil sees a way out in political negotiations: “Some people want to prevent the Geneva conference. However, the international community, realizing the danger of the situation in Syria not only for the country, but for the whole world, decided to hold the conference of Geneva-2 as a settlement of the Syrian crisis. Some say that Geneva-2 won’t take place because the situation on the battle field is unsettled. But I would like to say that the situation on the battle field won’t be settled without the conference of Geneva-2. For us Geneva-2 means a halt to any interference in Syria’s affairs, first of all, military intervention, providing arms, sending recruits, and so on. Tens of thousands of foreigners are fighting in Syria on the opposition’s side. These are very powerful forces because these people are experienced in military affairs. And this is a threat not only to Syria, but for the region in general. When they complete their mission in Syria, it doesn’t matter whether it will be a victory or a defeat, they will move to other countries to spread destruction and murder there. And God only knows where their military adventures will stop. We demand to stop military intervention to prevent the plague, the Nazi plague which is growing in our region during the period, due to unwise policy of some leaders, which has been provided and is still provided. We should stop the cancer! However, God forbid, if the forces win in Syria, we will experience suffering which the humanity saw in the Second World War. The fascists’ victory in Spain in 1936 was a pre-condition for the beginning of the Second World War. I don’t know what war will be a result of fascism spread in Syria today. Probably it will be a war which will involve the whole world.”
