Russia Agrees to Stop Selling Arms to Iran

Russia has pledged to help curb the spread of conventional weapons by ending its own arms deliveries to Iran and restricting sales of ballistic-missile technology on the world market, Vice President Al Gore announced Friday.

The agreements, signed by Gore and Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, will give Russia a prominent role in two international arms-control bodies at the cost of some lucrative markets for its struggling defense industry.

Chernomyrdin told reporters the deals emerged from “difficult and lengthy talks” but dodged a question about Russia’s exact obligations. Gore indicated that Russia will be allowed to fulfill existing arms contracts with Iran--a process that will “close out in the next few years,” an Administration official said.

The leaders’ evasive treatment of the main achievement of their two-day meeting was clearly aimed at blunting criticism in Russia. Iran has bought at least $2 billion worth of Russian combat aircraft, battle tanks and submarines over the past five years, making it one of Moscow’s best clients.

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“We’re always sensitive to each other’s situations,” Gore told American reporters of the agreement on Iran. “Sometimes talking about something too much makes it more difficult to do. “But this is significant, very significant. I would say that this [issue] has been resolved in a specific, mutually agreed fashion that does not leave any uncertainty or open ends that would create problems in the future,” he said.

Gore, who led six Cabinet officials to Moscow for talks with their Russian counterparts, laid more emphasis on the wide range of agreements they signed in economic, environmental and crime-fighting endeavors. It was the fifth such meeting of the expanding Gore-Chernomyrdin commission in less than two years.

The most lucrative deal struck was a $15-billion contract, involving Russia’s state oil company, Exxon Corp. and Japan’s Sodeco, to develop oil and gas fields off Sakhalin island in Russia’s Far East.

Despite a domestic crisis that led to the firing Friday of three Russian Cabinet ministers, Gore said that he and Chernomyrdin met one-on-one in “a businesslike and constructive atmosphere” to tackle the toughest bilateral issues.

At the center was Russia’s relationship with Iran. The deal ending Russian arms sales to its southern neighbor, first discussed by Presidents Clinton and Boris N. Yeltsin in September, will make Russia a founding member of a worldwide body being set up to replace the Cold War organization known as Cocom.

Cocom--the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls--was formed in 1949 by North Atlantic Treaty Organization members and Japan to restrict military sales to the Soviet Union and its allies. It was dissolved in March, 1994, and its replacement will work to isolate such rogue nations as Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea. Russia already observes U.N. trade sanctions against the latter three.

Russia will also join the worldwide Missile Technology Control Regime, a step that would bar it from providing ballistic missiles and missile technology to non-member nations. A $150-million 1992 contract to supply such technology to Brazil will be curtailed, an Administration official said.

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Struggling to recover from a post-Soviet slump, Russia’s arms industry registered $1.7 billion in 1994 exports--just 1.7% of the world market--but expects a 50% jump in sales this year.

Friday’s agreements capped a long campaign by U.S. officials to convince Moscow that some of its arms exports contribute to unchecked proliferation and threaten its long-term security interests.

Making a similar argument, Clinton urged Yeltsin at their summit here in May to cancel the sale of two light-water nuclear reactors to Iran. But the Russians rejected U.S. assertions that Iran could use the technology to build a nuclear bomb and insisted on going ahead with the project.

Gore said he spent most of his time with Chernomyrdin this week making new arguments against the $1-billion reactor deal, with no success. But Chernomyrdin agreed that the issue “requires further discussion and study.”

“The Russians are not yet willing to accept our case, but they have specifically said [their] minds are open and they welcome additional information of the kind we are providing them,” Gore said.

Both sides reported progress in salvaging a 1993 agreement under which the United States is buying 500 tons of Russian weapons-grade uranium for conversion into fuel for American power stations.

Viktor N. Mikhailov, Russia’s atomic energy minister, threatened last month to cancel the deal when the pact ran afoul of U.S. anti-dumping laws and the Americans held up fuel imports and payments.

Georgy Kaurov, a spokesman for Mikhailov, said the American side agreed Friday to try to amend its own legislation and to make “prompt payment” for the fuel.

“This matter is going to be dealt with fairly,” Gore quipped. “We’ve all agreed that Minister Mikhailov is going to pick up the tab for dinner tonight.”