An official trip by Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, to Russia has been called off. Some media reported that the cancellation was in line with more coordination between Iranian officials prior to the forthcoming visit. Other media just reported that the visit had been postponed for an uncertain period of time without naming any cause.
Some observers said that the trip may have been cancelled due to the situation with Iran's nuclear program, which is more and more complicated. Teheran had actually rejected the proposal of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to enrich the uranium abroad. After that, the six nations-mediators resumed the discussion on introducing new sanctions against Iran. EU officials expect the relevant proposals to be submitted to the UN's Security Council by mid-February. The content of these proposals is not disclosed. In its turn, Teheran is still insisting on its right to develop its nuclear sector saying that the program has a purely peaceful character. Teheran wants its nuclear program to be coordinated exclusively by the IAEC, to exclude any political aspects. According to our expert Andrei Volodin from the Institute of the World Economy and International Relations it is unlikely that the cancelation of Jalili's visit to Moscow may be connected with some crucial problems, which emerge from time to time in the case of the Iranian nuclear program:
"I think that it is just a part of a sophisticated political game around Iran's nuclear program. It is good that Russia is refraining from any tough statements and the Russian diplomats are aware of the complexity of the issue. And they also understand - this is my personal assumption - that some Western countries also have their own hidden agendas regarding Iran. That is why the cancellation of Jalili's visit to Moscow should not be regarded as something extraordinary, something beyond the negotiating process. It is quite normal", our expert says.
Of course Moscow would like the global community to have no doubts about the purely peaceful character of Iran's nuclear program. As Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, the US Security Council may consider additional sanctions against Iran, but he hopes that everyone who influences the decision-making process will be guided exclusively by the principles of non-proliferation and not by any personal agendas.
