US/Russia

Moscow lines up with the West

Article published on the 2009-09-24 Latest update 2009-09-24 14:06 TU

U.S. President Barack Obama with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, NYC, 23 September 2009 Format: OBAMA : 3500 x 2275
(Photo: Reuters)

On Wednesday Russian and United States presidents met in New York alongside the United Nations General Assembly. President Medvedev would now be willing to impose new sanctions against Iran.

Dimitri Medvedev said that “sanctions” were inevitable in some cases after meeting President Obama. “Unfortunately, Iran has violated too many of its international commitments” said the US president

On Wednesday, Moscow said it could support new sanctions on Iran if there was enough evidence from UN inspectors.

These past few weeks have seen some thawing in US-Russian relations, particularly after Washington abandoned its anti-missile project. Both the Russian and American Presidents have confirmed they would be signing a new nuclear disarmament treaty.

Teheran has always denied it was trying to develop nuclear weapons claiming its nuclear programme is for civilian use only.

On the 1 October talks are expected to begin between Iranian officials and six world powers.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought up Israel in his UN speech referring to their “inhuman policies in Palestine” and condemned the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Around twelve delegations including France, Britain and the US walked out during his speech.