Ahmadinejad, Medvedev set to meet

One step closer to Armageddon!

Sun, 24 Aug 2008

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is set to meet with his Russian counterpart, amid escalating tensions between Moscow and Washington.

President Ahmadinejad, who is scheduled to attend the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on August 28 in Dushanbe, will meet with President Dmitry Medvedev for the first time since he took office. The two sides will discuss further expansion of bilateral ties and regional and international issues. Presidents from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan are scheduled to attend the meeting as permanent members of the SCO, while representatives from Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia will be in Dushanbe as observer members.

The report of the meeting comes as Western powers threaten Iran with a new round of UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear activities, accusing the country of pursuing a military nuclear program. Russia has been under Western pressure over its involvement in constructing Iran's 1,000-megawatt reactor in the southern city of Bushehr and supplying nuclear fuel to the country. Moscow, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, has long been against pressuring Iran with sanctions or the use of military force against the country over its nuclear activities.

Iran says it only intends to use nuclear technology for generating electricity in order to meet the demands of its growing population. The UN nuclear watchdog has confirmed that the country's 3 percent uranium enrichment rate is consistent with the construction of a nuclear power plant. Analysts maintain that the current conflict in Georgia, which has heightened tensions between the United States and Russia, might make it more difficult for the West to win Moscow's support for a fourth round of sanctions on Tehran. (Source)