US Secretary of State turns up heat on Iran at meetings in Russia

(NECN/RU-24) – US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday said that the United States was “very interested” in working with Russia to develop cooperation against the evolving threat from Iran. “Our assessment of the evolving threat from Iran led President Obama to adopt a new, different approach to missile defense,” said Clinton in reference to a change of US policy since the George W. Bush administration. In September US President Barack Obama shelved a Bush-era plan for an Eastern European missile defence shield that has been a major irritant in relations with Russia. In its place, he announced a redesigned defensive system that would be cheaper and more effective against the threat from Iranian missiles. Clinton said that the US would be interested in a joint threat assessment and a joint data exchange center “as a means of making missile defense a common enterprise against what we believe are increasingly common threats.” Also at Tuesday’s joint news conference in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the positions of the US and Russia on Iran’s nuclear program “coincide.” Lavrov says neither country has asked the other for anything in dealing with Iran and it would be silly to do so because of their similar positions. He also said the US and Russia have made “considerable” progress toward reaching agreement on a new strategic arms treaty. The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires in December and negotiators have been racing to reach agreement on a successor. Clinton is in Moscow for talks on a range of issues following visits to London, Northern Ireland and Switzerland.