Moscow, March 02: Russia will consider imposing “smart” sanctions against Iran if it refuses to relent over its nuclear programme, President Dmitry Medvedev said after negotiating a range of trade deals in Paris.
Medvedev was speaking after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that culminated in a gas pipeline deal between France’s GDF Suez and Russia’s Gazprom, as well as closer negotiations over French helicopter carriers.
While France is pushing hard for new measures to punish Tehran for its nuclear ambitions, Russia — which does significant trade with Iran — has warned the West against such sanctions.
“We are optimists and we are not losing the feeling that we may achieve success. Nonetheless, if it doesn’t work out … Russia is ready to consider with our other partners the question of introducing sanctions,” Medvedev said.
“The sanctions must be smart and not aimed at civilians.”
China has also been reluctant to support further punitive measures, but analysts say Beijing may vote for new sanctions if Moscow decides to do so.
Sarkozy said Russia and France had “extremely close” positions on Iran. He linked Moscow’s cooperation on global security issues to the possible sale to Russia of Mistral-class carriers, which has alarmed Washington and some of France’s east European allies.
Russia has said that if it had had the Mistral during its 2008 war with Georgia, it would have achieved its military goal in 40 minutes instead of 26 hours.
SHIPS AND GAS DEALS
However, Sarkozy, who brokered a ceasefire deal that ended the war with Georgia, has been keen to improve ties with Moscow, with an eye on lucrative energy and arms deals.
“How can we say to the Russians, ‘We need you to resolve a certain number of problems, notably the Iranian crisis, which is a very important crisis but we don’t trust you, we can’t work with you on the Mistral ships’?” Sarkozy told reporters.
“We want to turn the page on the Cold War,” he added, confirming that France had entered talks with Russia for the sale of four carriers.
Two of the carriers would probably be built in France and the other two in Russia, Sarkozy said. Each carrier, costing some 400 to 500 million euros, can carry troops, tanks and armoured vehicles as well as helicopters.
Military experts have said much depends on the technology that comes with the ship — an element France has been trying to play down to reassure worried eastern Europeans. The Russians, on the other hand, are unlikely to be interested in a ship stripped of the technology.
The package of trade deals signed on Monday also included an accord between GDF Suez and Russian gas monopoly Gazprom over a yet-to-be-built gas pipeline that would run north of the European Union bloc.
The planned Nord Stream gas pipeline will carry 55 billion cubic metres of gas annually from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea from 2012. Bypassing Ukraine, it could ensure supplies to Europe despite a running dispute between Moscow and Kiev that has disrupted flows in the past.
GDF Suez will take a nine-percent stake in the project, which it will buy from current shareholders — 4.5 percent from E.ON and the other 4.5 percent from Wintershall, and industry source told Reuters. The deal will allow GDF Suez to increase its gas supplies by 10 percent.
French utility EDF is also in discussions with Gazprom to join the South Stream project, which would run south of the European Union bloc.
—–Agencies