RUSSIA: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON MEETS RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN FOR MIDDLE EAST TALKS
Record ID:
400778
RUSSIA: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON MEETS RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN FOR MIDDLE EAST TALKS
- Title: RUSSIA: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON MEETS RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN FOR MIDDLE EAST TALKS
- Date: 4th September 2001
- Summary: (W4) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (SEPTEMBER 04, 2001)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SHAKING HANDS WITH RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN 0.06 2. SCU STATUE 0.09 3. WIDE OF ISRAELI AND RUSSIAN DELEGATIONS SITTING ROUND TABLE 0.23 4. SMV PUTIN SPEAKING AT ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION 0.45 5. SMV SHARON AND ISRA
- Embargoed: 19th September 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- Country: Russia
- Reuters ID: LVACYZ8MAKP5FUDHNX7MD0BC7EO
- Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has held talks with
Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a state visiting
focusing on violence in the Middle East.
Sharon's day of talks on Tuesday (September 4) was
punctuated by news that a Palestinian suicide bomber blown
himself up in West Jerusalem, wounding at least 12 people in
the morning rush hour.
It is Sharon's first visit to Russia, formally a joint
sponsor along with the United States of the Middle East peace
process, since his election in February on a pledge to
increase Israeli security. He had earlier met EU foreign
policy chief Javier Solana, who is trying to arrange a meeting
this week between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
On the eve of the talks, Israeli government spokesman Avi
Pazner said Sharon would ask Putin to persuade Arafat to halt
an 11-month-old Palestinian uprising and stop the transfer of
nuclear and missile know-how to Iran.
Pazner told Reuters that Sharon's main purpose was to
persuade Putin, a personal friend, to put pressure on Arafat
to stop the violence. He said that he also wanted Russia to
make a major effort to stop the transfer of Russian technology
to Iran, to try to prevent Iran building a nuclear bomb and
missiles to carry it. He said that a sizeable amount of
Russian technology had been going to Iran for years.
Russia is putting new plans to Iran for building further
nuclear power plant reactors in the southern port city of
Bushehr, deputy Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Reshetnikov
said on Tuesday (September 4).
Sharon's hardline reputation has won him popularity among
the large community of immigrants from the former Soviet
Union, who make up more than one million of Israel's six
million population and helped him to a landslide election
victory.
Though the Kremlin largely supported Arab nations during
the Cold War, Vladimir Putin's administration has given a more
open ear to Israel.
Russia has been trying to play a bigger role in the
Middle East, where its influence has waned since the end of
the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
And many Russians see a link in Israel's fight against bombing
attacks and their own nation's struggle to subdue a separatist
Islamic movement in the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
Sharon also met with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who
has expressed alarm at spiralling violence in the Middle East.
Russian news agencies noted that Ivanov had said last week
that events in the Middle East were "developing according to
the worst case scenario".
Itar-Tass news agency quoted Ivanov as saying that matters
could yet develop into "an even broader tragedy" and suggested
he might undertake a tour of the region.
"At this time, it is vital to stop the violence and create
conditions to resume the process of talks," it quoted him as
saying ahead of the meeting.
Sharon's three-day visit to Moscow is also set to include
a meeting with the influential Patriarch of the Russian Church
and with members of Moscow's Jewish community.
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