Perilous
Times
US 'tells Russia to warn Iran of last chance'
The United States has asked Russia to warn Iran it has a last
chance in negotiations expected in April to avoid military strikes
against its nuclear programme, a report said on Wednesday.
10:34AM GMT 14 Mar 2012
The Telegraph UK
Russia's Kommersant daily said US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton had told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the
talks between Iran and world powers were a "last chance" to
resolve the crisis.
"She asked her Russian colleague to make this clear to the Iranian
authorities" as Washington has no diplomatic relations with the
Islamic Republic, the newspaper said.
Their discussion took place after Monday's UN Security Council
meeting on Syria in New York, it added.
The newspaper said that a precise date and location for the talks
is still being decided. Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
said last month he expected the discussions to start in April at
the latest.
The report gave no further details on the kind of military action
Tehran faced but it said Russian diplomats at the United Nations
believed it was a "matter of when, not if" Israel would strike
against Iran.
Israel, as well as its main ally the United States, has repeatedly
refused to rule out using force against Iran over its nuclear
programme, which the West suspects is aimed at making nuclear
weapons, a claim denied by Tehran.
Russia has always warned in public that military action against
Iran risked having catastrophic consequences and has said that the
crisis must be solved diplomatically.
But Kommersant said the Russian military was now at a state of
"mobilised readiness" to protect the country from the knock-on
effects of a possible conflict like an influx of refugees into
neighbouring Azerbaijan.
Source: AFP