Monday January 22, 2007

Column:

Did anyone happen to read the item in last week's Pravda about Russia's sale of a weapons system to Iran?

If you didn't read Pravda, the largest Russian news agency, you would have missed the whole story. For some mysterious reason this huge transaction which will directly impact our lives was almost a non-event in the Western press.

Last week Russia delivered twenty-nine TOR-M1 weapons systems to Iran. Russia confirmed the transaction. And then Russia justified their action by way of a press conference that was immediately reported upon in Pravda. The whole deal net Russian nearly three- quarters of a billion dollars.

What were the Russians thinking? Is money all that important? And what was the United States State Department thinking? Why did they turn this major news blast into nothing more than a small blip on the news? All we got was a State Department spokesperson named Tom Casey making a clear statement explaining how the United States tried to convince Russia to cancel the sale but, alas, their protestations were to no avail.

The Russians understand the ramifications of their action. You can hear it in the way they justified the move. At the Moscow press conference Sergei Ivanov, the Russia Foreign Minister, explained it this way: "We have supplied modern anti-aircraft short-range missile systems under a contract." And then he said: "Iran is not under any sanctions." And then he said that Moscow had every intention of continuing "to develop military and technical cooperation with Tehran."

Wow.

The Russian foreign minister neglected to say that there are international sanctions against Iran. And he neglected to point out that Russia voted for those sanctions.

Russia claims that their arms sale contract with Iran was signed in the year 2005 and that they are just living up to their obligations. Russia also claims that the TOR-M1 is a defensive system and therefore, threatens no one. Technically, the Russians are correct.

They are correct that the TOR-M1 is a defensive unit. It has a very short range and is there to knock out low flying planes and cruise missiles only as high as six miles in altitude. And when the Russians introduced this new state-of-the-art weapon in an arms show in 2005 the Iranians immediately made it clear that they wanted as many units as they could get. And now they've got them.

So - why would Iran want a defensive system like the TOR-M1? They would want it in case a cruise missile was aimed at them? And who would aim a cruise missile at Iran? Only the United States or Israel. And only as a last resort. And now the Iranians are prepared. For Iran, the cost in dollars is negligible. For the United States and Israel the practical implications are staggering.

Arming Iran with defensive weapons is almost like helping Iran with their nuclear development. Which brings us full circle back to Russia.

Russia has significant economic interests in Iran's nuclear development and weapons procurement. The Russians are implementing not just this contract with Iran. The Russians continue to implement all of their signed contracts with Iran, including their contract for a light-water nuclear reactor in Bushehr.

In the midst of a major international crisis centering on Iran's nuclear activity an Iranian nuclear facility is being built by a Western ally, by an ally the Western world assumes to be trying to stop the entire crisis from spinning out of control. The Russian response lacks basic moral foundation. The government of Russia has no collective conscience.

The major threat to the civilized world today is Muslim fundamentalism. That threat is manifest in two forms: One is al Qaeda. The other is Iran.

Arming Iran in any way - even "only" in a defensive way aids them in their efforts to try to unseat and destabilize Western democracy and to curtail basic human rights and values as we, in the West, understand them.

Would a Western country entertain selling a defensive weapon to Osama bin Laden? After all, bin Laden is a target and his al Qaeda organization is certainly threatened. A defensive system would only protect bin Laden and al Qaeda from a Western attack. Who else would want to attack them?

I quake in fear of the Russian response.