Russia: U.S. Doesn't Plan To Attack Iran

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday that U.S. officials assured him in meetings in Washington this week that the United States does not have plans to launch military action against Iran, Russian news agencies reported.

Lavrov, who returned to Moscow on Saturday from meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and others, said he discussed the United States' plans to send additional forces to Iraq and neighboring areas.

"The American side assured us that they have no plans for war against Iran and that the additional presence of forces and equipment in the Persian Gulf region is aimed at stabilizing the situation," the ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies quoted him as saying.

In addition to the deployment of 21,500 more American soldiers to Iraq, the U.S. Navy is building up forces in the Middle East, prompting concern in Iran, which is already locked in a standoff with the U.S. and Europe over its nuclear program.

Lavrov said Moscow and Washington agree on the need for united action to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.

"On Iran, we have absolute agreement on the final goal — not to permit violations of the nonproliferation regime," he said, according to RIA-Novosti. "At the same time, it is necessary to have agreement on the tactical approach for moving toward this goal."

Russia and the United States have often been at odds over how to put pressure on Iran not to develop nuclear weapons. In December, Russia supported a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing limited sanctions against Iran after it ignored calls to halt uranium enrichment. But that support came only after an initial proposal was dropped that would have imposed curbs on Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, which Russia is helping build.

Lavrov on Saturday also expressed skepticism at a U.S. proposal to place elements of a missile defense system in former Soviet satellite countries. The United States says such a system would be aimed at intercepting possible missile attacks by Iran.

"What we heard (in Washington) does not convince us that this is an appropriate answer to those threats," he was quoted as saying by RIA-Novosti. President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that deployment of such sites could threaten Russia and he said Russia would take unspecified countermeasures.

Lavrov also said sharp differences remain between Moscow and Washington over the final status of the Serbian province of Kosovo, which has been a U.N. protectorate since 1999, when NATO airstrikes stopped Serbia's crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanian rebels.

Russia insists that Kosovo must remain a part of Serbia, whereas its majority ethnic Albanians seek independence. A plan unveiled by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari on Friday spelled out conditions for internationally supervised self-rule for Kosovo — complete with the trappings of nationhood such as a flag, anthem, army and constitution and the right to apply for membership in international organizations.

"Kosovo is a topic on which, in contrast to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, the divergence in our positions has a character of principle," Lavrov said.