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2002-08-22 11:20 MSK - U.S. warns Russia over Iraq, Iran ties
MOSCOW - A
senior U.S. Congress delegation warned Russia on Wednesday that its drive for
closer ties with Iraq and Iran could hurt rapidly-improving relations between
the two countries, the U.S. embassy in Moscow said. Moscow and Washington shed
old animosities and began a rapprochement after the September 11 attacks on the
United States, but Russia has refused to give up lucrative business with Iraq
and Iran - nations branded part of an "axis of evil" by U.S. President George W.
Bush. Adding to U.S. concerns, Moscow announced last week it was working on a
$40-billion economic cooperation agreement with Iraq. It has also said it was
considering building five nuclear reactors for Iran. "Over the past year,
U.S.-Russian relations have greatly improved, and it would be very regrettable
to have these recent developments chill an otherwise blossoming relationship,"
U.S. congressman Henry J. Hyde told Russian parliamentarians. Hyde, chairman of
the International Relations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, led
a bipartisan delegation which arrived in Moscow to discuss ties between the two
nations and express Washington's security concerns. The congressmen met key
Russian officials, including First Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov
and deputy speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament Vladimir Lukin,
during their trip, the embassy said. It said Lukin had assured the delegation
that in its dealings with Baghdad, Moscow would continue to honour its
commitments regarding U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of
Kuwait, which sparked the Gulf War. Russia has repeatedly said that its
relations with both Iraq and Iran are strictly in line with international law,
and that it has no intention of abandoning profitable energy contracts with the
two countries. Moscow has criticised U.S. policy to oust President Saddam
Hussein from power in Iraq, from which it hopes to recoup several billion
dollars of Soviet-era debt.
-Reuters
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