Clinton in Moscow for talks
Posted: Monday, October 12, 2009 6:04 PM by firstread
by NBC's Andrea Mitchell and Libby Leist
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian officials, most importantly on how to punish Iran if Iran does not live up to the inspection and disclosure commitments it made ten days ago in Geneva.
While in Russia Secretary Clinton will meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who has been a principal opponent of sanctioning Iran, and President Dmitry Medvedev, who signalled to President Obama a new openness to the possibility of sanctions if Iran does not comply. A senior official traveling with Clinton said she wants to emerge with a "meeting of the minds on how we move forward if Iran fails to live up to its obligations. There are different forms of pressure that we've talked about including sanctions."
Pressed on where Russia now stands, the official said: "Nobody believes that sanctions are an optimal outcome, we would rather avoid them, and deal with the nuclear issue but that did seem to be a step in the direction of agreeing with us and others that if Iran doesn't comply then there needs to be some consequences."
According to the senior official, Secretary Clinton will talk to Lavrov and Medvedev "about what specific forms of pressure Russia would be prepared to join us and our other allies in if Iran fails to live up to its obligations." Asked about Iran's pledge in Geneva to ship most of its declared low-enriched uranium to Russia for reprocessing, the senior official said, "We'll want to go through that with the Russians too and make sure that moves forward too."
Asked what may have tipped the balance this time with Russia, the U.S. official said, "It's a cumulation of factors...the post election violence [in Iran] contributed to the international community's resolve.
The State Deptartment is downplaying any suggestion that Prime Minster Vladimir Putin's absence from the capital means a snub to her, explaining that he had a long scheduled trip to China. "We are not reading anything into that," a State Department official said.
