Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Olmert faces up to Putin
Haaretz reports that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert cut to the nuclear chase in his meeting with Vladimir Putin. He told the ex-KGB President that Russia must help solve the standoff surrounding Iran's nuclear program.Russia has thus far escaped international opprobrium over Ahmedinejad's nuclear adventure, despite building the Iranian nuclear reactor.
The present situation has obvious parallels to France's sponsorship of Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor in the early '80s. Israel eventually bombed the Iraqi reactor.
Olmert told a press conference:
"The Iranians need to be afraid that something will happen that they do not want to happen to them. We don't have the privilege to allow a situation in which Iran has the capability for unconventional weapons,"
Of the Putin meeting he said:
"I leave this meeting with the sense that President Putin understands better than before the danger that is lurking from Iran's direction, should it succeed in realizing its objectives of arming itself with nuclear weapons"
The Russian President, for his part, told the press that he recommended Olmert to end the 'vicious circle (sic) of violence' and 'resume (sic) peaceful dialogue'. He also said hostages must be returned. He avoided mention of the Iranian imbroglio.
The Russians have, however, issued a directive to increase supervision over arms exports.
Haaretz says:
(T)he Israel Defense Forces captured 39 (Russian anti-tank) missiles (in the Lebanon war), some of them in their original packaging, along with shipment papers and other documentation, including serial numbers. Israeli officials showed photographs of these missiles and copies of the documentation to their Russian counterparts during meetings in Moscow about a month ago.
Russian arms proliferation, particularly nuclear arms proliferation, is thought to be greatly concerning the US and Israeli leadership.
These two countries are clearly the most likely targets of any nuclear attack by terrorists.
As Charles Krauthammer pointed out in a recent column, the possession of nuclear weapons by more than one state with aggressive policies towards one or both potential targets would effectively neuter the effectiveness of "MAD" deterrence, and would clear the way for underground elements with nuclear weapons stocks - as are believed to exist in Russia - to sell product.
Given the danger, it is clear Russia could be doing a lot more to delimit military or nuclear support for countries like Iran, Venezuela or North Korea.
