[A-List] Russia Considers Cooperating with Iran to Sell Natural Gas

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is what I have been waiting to hear for a long time. -- Yoshie

<http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/01/news/putin.php>
Russia considers cooperating with Iran to sell natural gas
By Steven Lee Myers
Thursday, February 1, 2007
MOSCOW

Even as the United States intensified its efforts to isolate Iran,
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia would consider
OPEC- like cooperation with Iran on sales of natural gas. He stopped
short of endorsing price fixing, however, saying he was concerned only
with ensuring stable supplies for consuming nations.

Putin reiterated Russia's opposition to Iran's acquiring nuclear
weapons, but his remarks underscored a widening rift between Russia
and the United States over how to deal with Iranian intransigence in
the face of the mild sanctions, imposed by the UN Security Council in
December.

"We think that the people of Iran should have access to modern
technologies, including nuclear ones," Putin said, "but that they
should choose a variant that will guarantee Iran access to nuclear
energy" while complying with its commitment under the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty not to build weapons.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted by news
agencies last week as saying that Russia and Iran could establish "an
organization of gas cooperation like OPEC."

Putin responded by calling it "an interesting idea." He went on to say
that Russia opposed creating a price-setting cartel — something that
European and other countries fear — but that "to coordinate our
activities would be worthwhile with an eye to the solution of the main
goal of unconditionally and securely supplying the main consumers of
energy resources."

Putin's remarks came during his annual winter news conference, an
affair that offers journalists an exhaustive, unconstrained
opportunity to press him on the issues of the day. He answered 66
questions over the course of three and a half hours, largely without
the rancor or prickly defensiveness that has characterized previous
sessions.

In the realm of foreign affairs, he denied that Russia had used its
natural resources as a political tool. He expressed new opposition to
the expansion of NATO, though mildly. And he criticized U.S.
negotiations to construct components of a national missile defense
system in Poland and the Czech Republic, even as he confidently said
Russia now possessed missiles to thwart such defenses.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On Iran, Russia has held out for a negotiated compromise, a position
at odds with U.S. efforts to turn Iran's leaders into political and
economic pariahs.

Putin's senior aide, Igor Ivanov, visited Iran last week and discussed
the nuclear issue, as well as potential energy cooperation with Iran,
which has reserves of natural gas second only to Russia's. Putin said
he hoped the visit would "remove any suspicions on the international
community about Iran's alleged plans to build nuclear weapons."

Putin also endorsed an idea floated last week by the director general
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, to
suspend UN sanctions if Iran agreed to a suspension of uranium
enrichment.

Putin recently visited Algeria, another major producer of natural gas,
where he oversaw the signing of a cooperation agreement between the
two countries' gas giants, Gazprom and Sonatrach. He is to visit
Qatar, another important gas producer, next week.

Christopher Weafer, chief strategist of Alfa Bank in Moscow, said in a
written note that Putin appeared less interested in creating a new
OPEC to dominate energy markets than in using closer cooperation with
other producers to "turn Russia from an 'energy threat' to some sort
of 'energy mediator'" in the eyes of Europe and other countries.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>