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Putin Urges No Nation Attack Iran

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By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, The Associated Press

Published: October 17, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - Vladimir Putin issued a veiled warning Tuesday against any attack on Iran as he began the first visit by a Kremlin leader to Tehran in six decades, a mission reflecting Russian-Iranian efforts to curb U.S. influence.

He also suggested Moscow and Tehran should have a veto on Western plans for new pipelines to carry oil and natural gas from the Caspian Sea, using routes that would bypass Russian soil and break the Kremlin's monopoly on energy deliveries from the region.

Putin came to Tehran for a summit of the five nations bordering the Caspian, but his visit was aimed more at strengthening efforts to blunt U.S. economic and military ties in the area. Yet he also refused to set a date for completing Iran's first nuclear reactor, trying to avoid an outright show of support for Iran's defiance over its nuclear program.

Putin strongly warned outside powers against use of force in the region, a reference to the United States, which many in Iran fear will attack over the West's suspicions that Iranians are secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made similar comments.

'We are saying that no Caspian nations should offer their territory to outside powers for aggression or any military action against any of the Caspian states,' Putin said.

The five national leaders later signed a declaration that included a similar statement - an apparent reflection of Iranian fears that the United States could use Azerbaijan's territory as a staging ground for military strikes in Iran.

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