Putin favours Iran with military warning to US
President Vladimir Putin handed the Iranian regime a welcome publicity boost yesterday when he delivered a stern warning against US military action during a historic summit in Teheran.
Revelling in the opportunity to goad Washington, Mr Putin greeted his host, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with a flamboyant display of bonhomie. The two men hugged enthusiastically on a red carpet flanked by a guard of honour. They exchanged hand-shakes and smiled for the cameras as Mr Ahmadinejad greeted his guest who had flown to Iran despite dubious Russian claims of a plot to assassinate him.
If Washington had entertained even vague hopes that Mr Putin would press the Iranian government into abandoning its nuclear ambitions, it was to be disappointed. Not only was Mr Ahmadinejad able to portray the visit as conferring international legitimacy on his isolated regime, Mr Putin seemed eager to offer his counterpart unconditional support, repeating claims that there was no evidence to suggest Iran wanted to build a nuclear bomb.
Mr Putin also secured the vital backing of Azerbaijan in a five-nation pact by the Caspian states to prevent the US from using the region as a staging ground for military action against Iran.
Pentagon military planners are said to have hoped for strategic support from Azerbaijan, which shares a border with Iran, has strong energy ties with the West and was one of only two Muslim countries to send troops to Iraq.
But, with a large minority of Azeris living in Iran, many analysts have argued that such hopes were always unrealistic.
"It is important that we do not even think about the possibility of using force," Mr Putin told the summit before the non-aggression declaration, also backed by Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, was signed.
"It is also important that we do not think about the possibility of using our territory for other countries to carry out aggression or military action against other Caspian states."
Although Russia lent its reluctant backing to two United Nations resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran, it has been stridently opposed to escalating the penalties after Teheran refused to stop its uranium enrichment programme.
Among Western diplomats, opinion is divided as to whether Russia — which has little to gain from a nuclear Iran — will eventually acquiesce.
Emboldened by its vast energy resources and desperate to reclaim its status as a global power, Russia could also stand to gain by seeing the United States dragged into a new, controversial and potentially debilitating Middle East conflict.
Among potential American targets would be Iran's first nuclear power plant, which Russia has been building, despite US displeasure, at the Gulf port of Bushehr for the past decade.
Mr Putin gave his host modest hope that the project would be completed, but refused to give a date.
The slow pace of construction has been a source of friction between the two countries, but has given the Kremlin political leverage over both Teheran and Washington. Officially Russia has justified the delays by accusing Iran of missing payments, charges Teheran vigorously denies.
