By Stan Goodenough
Oct 19, 2007
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's personally-delivered plea Thursday for Russian President Vladimir Putin to support international sanctions against a nuclear-bomb-chasing Iran fell on deaf ears.
Just hours after the two leaders emerged from a three-hour meeting in the Kremlin and Olmert flew home, Putin revealed he had been unmoved by the visit, declaring he remained opposed to economically strong-arming Tehran into changing course.
He earlier let Olmert know Russia also rejected a military solution to the standoff, saying he preferred to engage the Iranians in "constructive dialogue."
The Russian's intransigence on Iran is understood to be in line with his plans to re-establish his country's Soviet-era influence over the Middle East.
Western analysts say Putin has megalomanic ambitions; that he is maneuvering in readiness to declare himself Czar of a Russia allied with a number of internationally-blacklisted states, including North Korea, Iran and Syria.
Olmert's suddenly announced decision to pay a one-day visit to Moscow came a day after Putin made a state visit to Tehran, during which the Russian let it be known he had seen no evidence the mullahs were pursuing nuclear weapons.
But Putin’s assertion that the world needed to dialogue with Iran to stop it from going down the wrong nuclear road gave the lie to that statement.
Not all Israel's Knesset members were pleased with their prime minister. The Likud's Silvan Shalom said Friday morning the visit had humiliated Israel.
Speaking on Israel Radio, Shalom said Olmert had run in a panic to Putin the day after his return from Iran, thereby messaging Russia that the Jewish state wanted to maintain close ties in spite of Moscow's position on Iran.