Moscow, May 27: Russia on Wednesday accused Iran of indulging in “political demagoguery” after an unprecedented attack from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stretched Moscow’s already strained patience with Tehran.
Tehran has traditionally counted on Russia to moderate the stance of Western world powers in the standoff over its nuclear programme but Moscow has over the last weeks been increasingly open about its frustration with Tehran.
Ahmadinejad today bluntly accused Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of siding with Tehran’s enemies, like arch-foe the United States, in the crisis over the Iranian nuclear drive.
His comments were an extraordinary broadside against Russia, usually seen as having the closest political ties to Tehran of any major world power and a key military and technical partner of the Islamic Republic.
“Any unpredictability, political extremism, lack of transparency or inconsistency in decision-making… is unacceptable for Russia”, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy advisor Sergei Prikhodko said in response.
“No one has ever managed to retain their authority through political demagoguery,” Prikhodko added in a statement released by state news agencies.
Despite its strong energy and defence ties with Iran, Russia has backed a new sanctions drive at the UN Security Council which has issued repeated ultimatums for Iran to freeze uranium enrichment.
Moscow has also reacted coolly to a nuclear fuel deal aimed at defusing the standoff that was brokered by Brazil and Turkey earlier this month, a stance which has clearly disappointed Tehran.
Medvedev cautiously welcomed the deal but also expressed concern it may fail to allay the main fear of the international community about Tehran’s uranium enrichment operations.
“We hope Russian officials will pay attention, make amends and not let Iranians put them in the line of their historic enemies,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech today.
Iran appears particularly annoyed that Russia and China have joined in with the three other permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, France and the United States — in discussing a new sanctions text against Tehran.
But Prikhodko rubbished the suggestion by Ahmadinejad that Russia was adopting a pro-American stance in the nuclear crisis.
“Our position is Russian, it reflects the interests of all the peoples of Russia and thus it is neither pro-American nor pro-Iranian.”
–PTI