Moscow, March 18: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Russia on Thursday hoping to clear obstacles to a new treaty cutting arsenals of nuclear weapons and to win Moscow’s backing for tougher sanctions against Iran.
President Barack Obama has attempted to “reset” relations with Russia after a stormy period under his predecessor George W. Bush. But his administration needs results from its initiatives to counter Republican charges he is soft on Moscow.
Clinton’s 36-hour visit to Russia includes a meeting on Friday of the quartet of Middle East peace mediators — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — as well as talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on arms control and Iran.
Russian and U.S. teams have been negotiating for nearly a year on a successor to the 1991 START I treaty cutting arsenals of nuclear weapons and Lavrov said on Tuesday that they could have a deal ready for signing by early April.
“We are making very good progress. I can’t predict to you exactly when the agreement will be completed but … we are getting closer,” Undersecretary of State William Burns told reporters as Clinton flew to Moscow.
Medvedev and Obama pledged last year to cut each nation’s deployed nuclear warheads to between 1,500 and 1,675.
A fresh treaty would give fresh impetus to the “reset” in relations between Moscow and Washington but talks have bogged down in recent months over Russian concerns about U.S. plans for anti-missile systems in eastern Europe and disagreements over how to count and verify warheads.
Washington also hopes to win Moscow’s backing for tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, which the West suspects is intended to produce atomic weapons.
Medvedev earlier this month promised support for “smart” sanctions against Tehran which are not aimed at civilians but Moscow has long been reluctant to agree to punitive measures against a traditional ally and trading partner.
Clinton will meet Lavrov later on Thursday and Medvedev on Friday but officials said there were no plans for her to see Russia’s most powerful politician, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Putin was out of Russia travelling during Clinton’s last visit in October.
On Middle East issues, U.S. officials were circumspect about the prospects for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The Middle East quartet discussions — a dinner on Thursday night and Friday’s formal session — are designed to show international backing for indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians that the United States announced last week.
However, the launch of negotiations launch has been marred by a rare, public U.S.-Israeli dispute over Israel’s plans to plan to build 1,600 homes for Jews in a part of the occupied West Bank it annexed to Jerusalem.
Clinton has described the announcement — made while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel last week — as insulting.
She had made a series of demands of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the housing project itself and on showing his commitment to the indirect peace talks that the Israelis and Palestinians agreed to only last week.
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters that Netanyahu had yet to telephone Clinton with his response, a step that he said the United States wanted before its peace envoy George Mitchell returns to the Middle East for a trip he has repeatedly put off.
–Agencies