BBC - Khamenei denies US nuclear claims

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Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has denied Western claims that Iran intends to develop nuclear arms.

He said their production and use were prohibited, and that US allegations of a covert programme were false.

His comments come days after the US said it was modifying plans for defences against Iranian missiles and shelving a long-range missile shield.

Six world powers are to hold talks with Iran on 1 October that are expected to cover global nuclear disarmament.

Western powers believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian programme.

Ayatollah Khamenei's comments were seen as the first official response to the US decision to scrap a European missile initiative put forward by the former Bush administration to counter any long-range Iranian missile threat.

US President Barack Obama said the US would instead develop sea and land-based interceptors against Iran's short and medium-range missile threat.

But Ayatollah Khamenei said that the US knew it was "wrong" when it asserted that Tehran was pursuing a covert nuclear bomb.

"We fundamentally reject nuclear weapons and prohibit the production and the use of nuclear weapons," he said in a speech broadcast on state television.

Israeli assurance

Iran has always denied assertions from the US, Israel and other European powers that it is seeking to build nuclear arms.

Tehran insists its uranium enrichment initiative is for a purely peaceful civilian nuclear energy programme.

Meanwhile Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that Israel had assured him that it had no plans to attack Iran.

“ My Israeli colleagues told me they were not planning to act in this way, and I trust them ”
Dmitry Medvedev on the possibility of an Israeli strike against Iran

Mr Medvedev told US network CNN that Israeli President Shimon Peres gave the assurance during a visit to Moscow at the end of August.

According to a transcript of an interview released by the Kremlin, he said such a strike would cause a "humanitarian disaster" and be "the worst thing that can be imagined".

"My Israeli colleagues told me they were not planning to act in this way, and I trust them," he said.

The United States, Russia, the UK, France, China and Germany are set to attend international talks with Iran on 1 October.

The EU says it expects the meeting to take place in Turkey.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Iran must answer concerns about its nuclear programme at the talks "head on".

Ayatollah Khamenei said that "despite friendly messages and words", the current US government was anti-Iranian.

He also said the West must revise its policy.

"They must correct this," he said. "The Iranian nation is alert".

"They see and understand animosities and stand against them. The Islamic republic will not retreat."

Boris Nemtsov: Putin Failed to Pacify the North Caucasus

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By Boris Nemtsov

One of the biggest myths perpetrated by Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine is that during his 10-year rule over Russia, the former president and current prime minister succeeded in “pacifying” the North Caucasus. Nothing could be further from the truth. What we are witnessing today is the start of the third Caucasus war in 15 years, following the two Chechen wars of 1994 and 1999.

There was the June 22 attack on Ingushetia's President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the recent murders of Chechen human-rights activists Natalia Estemirova and Zarema Sadulaeva, and last week's terrorist attack in Nazran, which killed scores and maimed hundreds. Add to these the near-daily attempted murders of police officers in Dagestan (according to the local interior ministry, there have been 128 murder attempts against law-enforcement officials since the beginning of this year alone) and the constant kidnappings in Chechnya (Russian human-rights watchdog Memorial documented 74 kidnappings and 16 killings of Chechen residents between January and June). And this is only an abridged catalogue of the blood spilled in the North Caucasus during the past few months.

There are several reasons why the "pacification" of the region has failed. Vladimir Putin committed a fateful mistake when he struck cynical deals with influential clans in the North Caucasus to keep the region under Moscow's formal control: Federal money and blank checks on lawlessness to often criminal and corrupt local leaders were exchanged for their personal loyalty and support during so-called elections. The result of such deals is that the laws of the Russian Federation no longer apply in the North Caucasus, which is ruled by increasingly repressive regimes.

According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, Chechen authorities practice extrajudicial killings and punitive house-burnings against the relatives of suspected insurgents. Memorial workers and other rights activists in Chechnya point to constant surveillance of their activities by the local authorities. Before she was herself kidnapped and murdered, Estemirova, who worked for Memorial, was investigating the "disappearances" of people in Chechnya.

Meanwhile, the Moscow-installed Chechen leader, Putin friend and former militant Ramzan Kadyrov, has built a veritable personality cult around himself since coming to power in 2007. Moscow continues to supply 70%-90% of the revenue to the regional governments there, but it has failed to extend the writ of Russian law to the Caucasus.

Another important reason for the Kremlin's Caucasus failure is the elimination of democratic procedures. "Elections" in which Mr. Putin and his party receive 100% of the vote on a 100% turnout in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan are a throwback to Soviet times. They have left citizens without any real influence over their governments. The Kremlin's stubborn insistence on retaining former KGB Gen. Murat Zyazikov as president of Ingushetia despite overwhelming local opposition has no doubt greatly contributed to the recent upsurge in violence in that region.

Finally, Russia's recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (cheered on by separatists in the North Caucasus) after last year's Georgian war could come back to haunt Moscow. With this action, Mr. Putin and his successor in the Kremlin, Dmitry Medvedev, signaled that threats and blackmail can go a long way in achieving the separatists' goals. If and when the federal government, crippled by the economic crisis, stops its generous flow of money to the corrupt North Caucasus elites, Chechnya, Ingushetia and other republics of the Russian Caucasus may be tempted to follow the path of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The main lesson of recent tragedies is surely that cynicism, brutality and propaganda will not solve the very real political, economic and security problems of the North Caucasus. These problems can only be solved with honest policies based on the rule of law, democracy and respect for the rights of citizens.

—Mr. Nemtsov was deputy prime minister of Russia (1997-1998) and is a leader of the Solidarity opposition movement.