15 October 2007
TEHERAN - Russia said on Monday there was no indication of a change of plan to President Vladimir Putin’s landmark visit to Teheran this week after reports of an assassination plot by suicide bombers. “For the moment we have no information over a change of plan for the president,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in the Iranian capital.
Putin was due to arrive in Teheran on Monday evening before attending a summit of Caspian Sea heads of state on Tuesday and then holding talks with Iranian leaders on Wednesday.
His planned visit comes at a time of mounting international frustration with Iran for its alleged support for Shiite militants in Iraq and as well as its defiant refusal to suspend sensitive activities in its nuclear programme.
Although Iran has hosted allies and fellow US foes like Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, a visit by a statesman of Putin’s stature is a major event.
The United States has been pressuring European states and other countries to cut down their economic and political ties with Teheran as a lever to pressure it into backing down in the nuclear crisis.
Russia’s Interfax news agency, citing a source in the Russian special services, reported that a group of suicide bombers would try to kill Putin during a visit to Teheran.
A Kremlin spokesman said: “We cannot comment on this information but we confirm that the president has been informed.”
Iran’s foreign ministry reacted furiously to the reports, describing them as “completely without foundation” and saying they were part of a “psychological war waged by enemies to disrupt relations between Iran and Russia”.
Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini on Monday also insisted the visit was still going ahead and even gave a full itinerary for the presidential visit.
“He (Putin) will spend two working days in Iran. The first will be devoted to the Caspian Sea summit and he will continue his visit for discussions with Iranian officials on regional and international questions.”
He said that Russian officials were not giving credence to the reports and “even before these reports, significant security measures had been taken by each side”.
Putin is due to arrive in Iran after a visit to Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, where he made no comment about the reports of a threat to his life in Iran.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/October/middleeast_October175.xml§ion=middleeast
1 comment:
The Caspian Summit starts tommorrow and already the theme is sticking together against problems to keep peace in the area....cough, cough could it be the Gerbil Adminstration?
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