In step with US calls for greater international pressure on Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in Moscow to rally support for a new round of sanctions.

The two-day visit will see Netanyahu discuss Iran's enrichment program, which Israel is trying to portray as a mortal threat against it, in closed-door talks with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

On February 8, Israeli officials told The Jerusalem Post on conditions of anonymity that Netanyahu will have a hard time wooing the Russians, who are helping Iran build a nuclear reactor in the southern city of Bushehr and have so far appeared reluctant in imposing sanctions on the country.

This is Netanyahu's first official visit to Moscow as Prime Minister. Earlier in September, he paid a secret trip to Russia which lasted less than 24 hours.

The trip comes amid intense efforts by the US to globally isolate the Tehran government by means of threats and hard-hitting sanctions.

In late January, the US Senate passed S2799 — the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2009 — which allows US President Barack Obama to punish any entity that ships gasoline or heating oil to Iran.

The legislation which would negatively impact ordinary people in Iran is supposedly designed to pressure Tehran into halting its nuclear activities by choking off the country's entire oil and natural gas industry.

This comes as the US House of Representatives had in December passed a similar bill, called the "Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act of 2009," which also targets the country's gas and energy sector.

While the two legislations won attention and applause from pro-Israeli lobbies in the US, they were also met with the reluctance and reservation of some administration officials.

In a December letter to Senator John Kerry, who is the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a vocal advocate of more sanctions on Iran, Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg voiced serious concern over the sanctions bill.

According to Steinberg, the legislation in its current form would prove to be counter productive.

“We have serious substantive concerns, including the lack of flexibility, inefficient monetary thresholds and penalty levels, and blacklisting that could cause unintended foreign policy consequences,” he noted.

Other senior US officials have also said on condition of anonymity that they are opposed to the legislation as it may hurt the Iranian people in the worst possible way.

Notwithstanding these calls, Washington has move ahead with planned targeted sanctions against Iran, particularly after the country started enriching uranium to a level of 20 percent after potential suppliers failed to provide fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran.

The Tehran research, which is of vital importance as it produces medical isotopes for cancer patients, is soon to run out of fuel. In light of this, Iran had requested that the UN nuclear watchdog arrange for the supplying of the fuel to the country.

The West has been pressuring Iran to accept a draft deal, which requires Iran to send most of its domestically-produced low enriched uranium abroad for conversion into the more refined fuel that the Tehran research reactor requires to produce medical isotopes.

Iran says it will not accept the deal unless its concerns are taken into consideration — a request that has been rejected by Western countries, particularly the US which has prepared a new slate of sanctions resolutions against Iran.

The targeted sanctions assembled by the US include adding more Iranian officials to a travel ban list, imposing an interdiction on arms import, enlarging an asset freeze to target more Iranian companies, and last but not least, blacklisting the central bank and a number of other big banks.

Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, economic sanctions have played a key role in Washington's approach towards the Tehran government.

But Tehran government officials have had no qualms about the prospect of tougher economic measures, saying that while sanctions have hurt the Iranian people in part, they have also helped the country to achieve independence and self-sufficiency in various fields of economy, science and technology.

http://www.presstv.ir/new/detail.aspx?id=118655&sectionid=351020104

15/02/2010 On the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow, senior Russian security officials were speaking out on defense-related issues that have provoked tensions between the two countries.

An hour before Netanyahu's plane took off on Sunday, Russian officials said that Moscow sees no reason to delay the sale of the S-300, a powerful air-defense system, to Iran. In addition, on Friday, Russian intelligence officials leaked comments expressing their displeasure with plans by an Israeli firm to close a major arms deal with Georgia.

"There is a signed contract [for the S-300 missiles] which we must follow through on, but deliveries have not started yet," Vladimir Nazarov, deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council secretary, told Interfax news agency in an interview. "This deal is not restricted by any international sanctions, because we are talking about deliveries of an exclusively defensive weapon."

Nazarov added that a military strike on Iran would be a big mistake and that the problems linked to Tehran's nuclear program must be resolved by diplomatic means only. "Any military action against Iran will make the situation explode and will have extremely negative consequences for the entire world, including for Russia, which is a neighbor of Iran," he noted.

Israel has expressed concern in the past over Russian plans to sell Iran the S-300 system, which will be used to defend its nuclear installations against a possible attack. During the past two years, both Israel and the United States have pressured Russia not to implement the agreement with Iran, and there may be other opposition, according to sources in the premier's entourage.

Netanyahu is expected to raise the subject of the arms sales to Iran in meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putting. In recent months Russia had promised not to go through with the deal. However, the economic crisis and pressure from the military establishment have resulted in major disagreements within the country's leadership on the issue.

Medvedev recently told Israeli President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Russia needs the revenue from the deal and suggested that a different buyer be found.

This is Netanyahu's first official trip to Moscow since taking office a year ago, but follows a clandestine visit in September, a secretive move that highlighted the key role Russia plays in the nuclear standoff. He plans to tell his Russian hosts that Moscow must take an active role in halting Iran's nuclear program.

"We will discuss a range of issues, but first and foremost Iran," Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting hours before he was due to leave for Moscow for the two-day visit.

"Israel believes that strong pressure must be applied to Iran, especially very tough sanctions, which Secretary of State [Clinton] described as paralyzing."," he said, echoing his calls last week for "crippling sanctions" on the Islamic republic.

Russia's declarations about the S-300 system were also meant to send a message to Israel that it does not approve the resumption of its arms sales to Georgia, which were frozen in August 2008.

According to the Russian government news agency, Itar-Tass, Israel resumed the sale of arms to Georgia and "is no longer limiting itself to the sale of UAVs [drones]," which are perceived to be defensive weapons.

A Russian intelligence source was quoted as saying that a private Israeli firm is providing weapons to the Georgian armed forces.

Specifically, according to the Russian news agency Ropadia, a company registered in Cyprus signed a contract for the delivery of 50,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 1,000 RPG launchers, and 20,000 40mm shells for the rocket launchers, in addition to 15,000 assault rifles of different types. The report stated that the arms deal was also carried out through Arsenal, a Bulgarian firm.

Sources at the Israeli foreign ministry confirmed that security ties with Georgia were recently resumed, but they involve provision of basic training for the Georgian army by Israeli firms.

http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=124535&language=en