Iran, Gaza take center stage at regional summit in Istanbul

[FarCenter]

June 7, 2010
FULYA ÖZERKAN
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
As the U.N. Security Council prepares for a vote on new sanctions against Iran, Turkey is flexing its newfound diplomatic muscles by hosting two key players in the stalemate over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Vladimir Putin, the prime minister of Russia, one of the five permanent members on the Security Council, will attend a regional security summit in Istanbul on Tuesday that is expected to provide an avenue for intense diplomatic talks.

Top Turkish leaders are set to meet with both Ahmadinejad and Putin as they continue their efforts to seek a diplomatic solution to the Iranian conflict. A deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey on May 17 that would see Iran exchange low-enriched uranium for high-enriched fuel for its Tehran reactor was immediately given the cold shoulder by the United States, which has been pressing for a new round of sanctions.

Turkey opposes a new sanctions resolution in the Security Council, where both it and Brazil are non-permanent members.

Russia, which revised its initial objections to sanctions and decided to back the resolution, will be represented in Istanbul by Putin, who will hold separate talks with the Turkish leadership. Ahmadinejad met with Turkish President Abdullah Gül on Monday and is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to talk about the nuclear swap deal. Ahmadinejad and Putin will also talk directly, according to Agence France-Presse.

China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council that has emerged in recent years as Iran’s main trading partner, continues to insist on diplomacy to resolve the standoff. U.S. officials, however, say they have support for the sanctions resolution from Beijing, which has sent senior representatives to the third summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, or CICA.

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