A top Russian security official and a senior lawmaker suggested on Tuesday that Moscow could back a draft UN Security Council resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran, despite Russia's long-held opposition to punishing Tehran.
"The Russian political leadership will apparently have to join a new resolution on Iran proposed by Britain, Germany and France that envisages limited economic sanctions," Yuri Volkov, a deputy speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said in a statement.
Volkov has played a low-key role in the past and made no statements on global politics, although he is in charge of parliamentary contacts with Iran. Like most other members of the Duma, he belongs to the Kremlin-controlled United Russia faction.
It is unclear whether he has any access to Kremlin decisionmaking. But Igor Ivanov, the head of Russia's presidential Security Council, made comments later that also suggested Moscow could support the draft European resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
"Resolutions and sanctions are not a goal in themselves. They are just one of the elements," Ivanov told a news conference. "And if such a resolution is worked out, it will be first of all one of the elements aimed at assisting political negotiations, because only as a result of political negotiations and dialogue can a concrete result be achieved."
"Any decision in the Security Council must be aimed not at punishing Iran but at achieving our goals through political means," Ivanov said.
The goal, he said, is to preserve Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy while ensuring it does not develop nuclear weapons.
Ivanov's comments suggested that Russia -- which is wary of angering Iran by appearing to join the West in calls for punishment, and has warned that harsh measures could scuttle chances for a resolution of the crisis -- could cast support for limited sanctions as a path toward further talks.
"Russia continues to call for a political settlement," he said.
His remarks left plenty of room for wrangling in the Security Council, and may have been intended more as a signal to a stubborn Iran that Russia's opposition to sanctions has its limits than as a telegraph of its plans for a council vote.
Russia and China, both veto-wielding Security Council members with strong commercial ties to Tehran, have consistently been reluctant to support sanctions.
But Volkov said that "the Iranian leadership's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment activities and engage in a constructive dialogue with leading global powers leaves no chance for a quick diplomatic solution of the Iranian nuclear problem."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not