Newly released documents from the US National Security Archive show that Russian President Vladimir Putin explicitly stated in a confidential conversation with George W. Bush in 2001 that "there is no doubt that the Iranians want to obtain nuclear weapons."
He added that he had ordered Russian experts to refrain from transferring any sensitive information to Iran, according to a report from Iran International quoting the documents.
The National Security Archive has recently released a collection of classified documents from meetings and contacts between Russian and American Presidents Putin and Bush, some of which are directly related to Iran and its nuclear program. The documents, the result of a legal battle for public access to classified correspondence, offer a rare glimpse into the candid, behind-closed-doors conversations between the two superpowers about Iran.
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In one of the most important of these documents, from a June 16, 2001, meeting in Slovenia, Putin tells Bush: “Iranian experts are asking our experts a lot of questions about sensitive issues. There is no doubt that they want nuclear weapons. I have told our people not to give them such information.” This is the Kremlin leader’s most explicit assessment of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear intentions in the early 2000s.
In the same conversation, Putin stressed that Moscow would limit the transfer of missile technology to Iran and warned that some individuals and networks were seeking to profit financially from sensitive cooperation with Tehran. He also asked Bush whether the United States was moving toward normalising relations with Iran, a topic that Bush and then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice dismissed as “rumour.”
The NSA documents show that the Iranian government was a major focus of strategic discussions between Washington and Moscow at the time.
In another document from September 16, 2005, when Putin and Bush met in the Oval Office, the focus of the discussions once again shifted to nonproliferation and US-Russian cooperation on Iran. According to the document, Putin provides a detailed explanation of Russia’s understanding of Iran’s nuclear program, Moscow’s concerns, and the reasons for Russia’s participation in the Bushehr nuclear power plant project. In the same meeting, Bush says in a sharp tone: “We don’t need religious extremists with nuclear weapons,” a phrase that is clearly directed at Iran.
The documents also reveal tactical differences between Washington and Moscow, including over when to refer Iran to the UN Security Council. Putin has warned that premature pressure could push Iran down a path similar to North Korea, but has also stressed that referral to the Security Council would be justified if Tehran violated international law.
