Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of a summit in Beijing next week as tensions rise over Tehran’s nuclear drive, a Kremlin official said.
“Meeting Ahmadinejad will let Putin personally feel the tension around the Iranian issue and how it is perceived in Tehran,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov told reporters last week in comments that had been embargoed for release until Sunday.
Putin and Ahmadinejad agreed to meet over the phone and the initiative came “from each sides,” Ushakov stated.
The meeting will come as Russia prepares to host the most recent round of talks on June 18 and 19 among planet powers and Iranian negotiators in a bid to find a diplomatic remedy to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme.
The Moscow talks will follow a meeting last month in Baghdad exactly where the six planet powers — the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany — confronted Tehran over its intention to enrich uranium in spite of fears it was building a nuclear bomb.
The talks achieved small in two days of intense discussions besides setting up the next meeting in Moscow.
Sources and more information:
• Putin to Meet With Ahmadinejad in China
“Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of a summit in Beijing next week as tensions rise over Tehran’s nuclear drive, a Kremlin official said,” reports Agence France Presse. “‘Meeting Ahmadinejad will let Putin personally feel the tension around the Iranian issue and how it is…
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