U.S. and Russia Stay in Sync on Iran

The United States and Russia held to a united stance Tuesday in their joint campaign to corral Iran’s nuclear program, as top Bush administration officials led by Vice President Dick Cheney issued new threats against Tehran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov met in Washington with President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the president’s national security advisor, Stephen J. Hadley. Lavrov squelched reports that Russia had separately offered Iran a compromise that would have allowed it to make at least small amounts of nuclear fuel.

Heightening the tensions over Iran’s refusal to back down, Cheney, in some of the strongest administration language yet, said Iran faced “meaningful consequences” unless it changed course.

“For our part, the United States is keeping all options on the table in addressing the irresponsible conduct of the regime,” Cheney said. “And we join other nations in sending that regime a clear message: We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

His remarks to the Washington policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a strongly pro-Israel lobbying group, are formulaic Washington language that implies the threat of military action.

Asked later about Cheney’s remarks, the White House said the administration remained focused on diplomatic options. Rice stopped short of saying the United States would immediately begin demanding international sanctions against Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, accused the Bush administration of a “propaganda” effort to scuttle a diplomatic solution.

“Whenever the Americans feel there may be any chance for agreement between Iran, [the International Atomic Energy Agency], Russia or other countries, they try to destroy it,” he said on Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency website.

Although it has participated in diplomatic efforts, the Bush administration in recent years frequently has resorted to muscular language both to pressure Iran and to persuade U.S. allies to remain firm in dealing with the country’s theocratic regime.

Tuesday’s comments suggest the administration’s skepticism about the likelihood of successful diplomacy. U.S. officials, however, have acknowledged that they have few military options and poor intelligence.

Issuing a new charge, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld linked Iran to the insurgency in Iraq, saying members of the Revolutionary Guard’s Al Quds Division had infiltrated Iraq to perform missions “harmful to the future of Iraq.”

U.S. and British commanders in Iraq charged last year that the Iranian government was aiding Shiite Muslim insurgents by shipping high-grade explosives and other bomb-making material into Iraq. But before Tuesday, officials had not accused Iran of sending military personnel into Iraq.

Rumsfeld did not provide specifics to support his assertion. He and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was difficult to determine the number of Iranian troops involved.

“In a country the size of California with a population of 28 million people and porous borders, with Iranian pilgrims going back and forth all the time, it’s not an easy thing to make those kind of good judgments,” Rumsfeld said.

But, he said, “the Revolutionary Guard doesn’t go milling around willy-nilly, one would think,” implying that such troops were acting under orders from Tehran.

U.S. intelligence officials believe that the Al Quds force is primarily responsible for foreign intelligence gathering and for training Islamic fundamentalist groups in terrorist operations throughout the Middle East.

The dispute with Iran over its nuclear program hinges on the question of Tehran’s ultimate goal: Iran says its research on uranium enrichment is directed at developing civilian nuclear power; the West and Russia fear it is intended to develop a nuclear weapon.

The IAEA governing board is meeting this week in Vienna as a prelude to action by the U.N. Security Council, which will take up the case against Iran next week. After the IAEA meeting ends, Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei’s report on Iran will be formally conveyed to the Security Council, which could consider imposing sanctions.

The IAEA board of governors reported Iran to the Security Council on Feb. 4. It demanded that Tehran cease all enrichment activity and answer inspectors’ outstanding questions about its program, including those about possible links between Iran’s uranium enrichment and its military. It also demanded that Iran ratify a more comprehensive inspection regime.

Iran ignored the demands. Moving in the opposite direction, it said that it had the right to operate the nuclear fuel cycle for civilian purposes.

Western diplomats reached from Vienna said Russia had pursued an arrangement under which Iran would abandon uranium enrichment for two years and give the atomic agency additional inspection access. In exchange, it would be allowed to maintain a small research enrichment operation.

But Iran objected, one diplomat said. And officials from the West said that even a small research facility would give Iran expertise in running the larger number of centrifuges needed to enrich the uranium to levels required for a bomb.

“If they’ve learned to operate even a small cascade [of centrifuges], that’s knowledge we think they can apply and will apply to a secret program far away from the eyes of the IAEA,” said a U.S. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We have real concerns about that.”

Lavrov told reporters Tuesday that there had been no such plan. “There is no compromise, new Russian proposal,” he said, with Rice at his side after their State Department meeting.

Since December, Russia has been trying to broker a deal that would satisfy Iran’s publicly stated need for nuclear fuel but satisfy the West’s demand that Tehran be prevented from obtaining access to the technology and knowledge needed to enrich uranium.

The key component in Moscow’s initial proposal, which remains under consideration, is a joint Russian-Iranian venture to enrich uranium on Russian soil. Russia has been the major supplier of Iran’s civilian nuclear program and is building Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant. Russia has agreed to supply the facility’s fuel for 10 years.

Rice, noting the Bush administration’s support for the Russian formula, said it “would be a joint venture with enrichment and reprocessing on Russian soil,” with “minimal proliferation risk.” Russia has sought to avoid imposing U.N. sanctions on Iran.

After his meeting with Rice, Lavrov was asked whether Russia would support sanctions if Iran failed to comply with the efforts to put controls on its nuclear program.

“Have you seen a proposal for any sanctions?” he said in response.

The Russian began a series of intense meetings on the matter Monday evening, dining with Rice and Hadley, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.

The White House spokesman avoided a direct response when asked whether Cheney was implying that Iran might face military action if it did not refrain from its nuclear development without international supervision.

“We’re pursuing a diplomatic solution to this,” McClellan said. He said that Iran must “make a dramatic shift in its course and behavior,” and if not, “the international community must hold the regime to account.”

Finding support for sanctions, which the United Nations imposed on Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion, will not necessarily be an easy route for the Bush administration.

With the Iraq experience still fresh, many countries view referral of the Iran nuclear issue to the Security Council as the equivalent of putting Iran on a military target list and want to take every step to avoid that.

Times staff writers Alissa J. Rubin in Vienna and Mark Mazzetti in Washington contributed to this report.