[Trouble-making Russia is busy in the Middle East. While Putin is visiting Israel, it is possible that it is to discuss Israel’s desire to attack the Russian-built nuclear reactor in Iran. The Russians are arming all of Israel’s enemies. Jan]

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will tell the visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that Israel opposes Russian plans to sell armored troop carriers to the Palestinians, officials sources said.

Israeli media quoted government officials as saying Israel wants Palestinian security forces to do a better job of controlling armed militants before receiving sophisticated military equipment.

Sharon was scheduled to meet with the Russian president Thursday, after Putin meets with separately with President Moshe Katsav. Putin arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport late Wednesday on the first-ever visit by a Russian or Soviet leader to Israel.

On top of the contentious issue of Russian plans to sell military equipment to the PA and Syria, Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said that Russia has been selling unconventional weapons components to Iran, which will also be a prime issue on the agenda.

Olmert, speaking to Army Radio Thursday morning, said that Russia’s nuclear assistance to Iran is a cause for concern. Russia has been providing assistance for Iran’s nuclear program, which Teheran claims is for peaceful purposes only, while the international community is concerned that the country is pursuing nuclear weapons.

“His deal with Iran is not just an arms deal,” Olmert said. “He also supplies Iran with components that could be used for possible production of unconventional weapons.”

Olmert, however, played down Russian arms sales to Israel’s enemies and said Putin is interested in maintaining close relations with Israel.
“I don’t like the fact that these weapons will be sold, but I don’t think Russian-Israeli relations should only be viewed through the prism of this particular deal,” he said.

Olmert said that during their brief conversations Wednesday, Putin said he is committed to friendly relations with Israel.

“He does not disillusion himself that there will only be agreement between Israel and Russia. He is very interested in maintaining these relations though,” Olmert said.

Putin has lately indicated an interest in selling non-combat military equipment to the PA as a way of militarily supporting the PA, including vehicles, communications and logistical equipment, according to senior officials in Jerusalem.

The officials said that Israel would not publicly respond until it hears directly and in detail what the Russians had in mind. Nevertheless, they said the Russian interest to provide military equipment to the PA, as well as discussions the Russians are holding with Egypt over potential arms sales and the sale of missiles to Syria, indicated that Moscow was once again trying to gain influence in region through the sale of military equipment.

From Cairo on Wednesday Putin raised the idea of holding an international peace conference in Moscow in the Fall, another idea that did not go down well in Jerusalem.

The officials said that an interest to gain influence in a region that Kremlin leaders have long viewed as their “immediate backyard” was behind Putin’s offer to host a Mideast conference.
Putin said he would raise the issue at his meeting with Sharon.

“I am suggesting that we should convene a conference for all these countries concerned [with the Mideast peace process] and the Quartet, next autumn,” Putin said in Russian during a joint press conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. Russia is a member of the Quartet, along with the US, EU and UN.

Senior Israeli and US officials quickly poured cold water on the international conference idea.

“Israel has a standing policy that there can be no international conference that in any way, either overtly or latently, seeks to circumvent the road map,” a senior source in Jerusalem said. “This is not acceptable to us, and is not acceptable to the US.”

Another official, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, said Israel is not in principle opposed to an idea of an international conference, as long as it takes place in the second stage of the road map. “We are not in stage one or two of the road map,” Regev said, “and have to go through those stages before holding an international conference.”

The Road Map states explicitly that an international conference will be convened in Phase 2 “to support Palestinian economic recovery and launch a process, leading to establishment of an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders.”

White House press secretary Scott McClellan echoed Israel’s position at his daily press briefing.

“In terms of an international conference, we have to look at where we are right now,” he said. “The road map does call for an international conference. We believe there will be an appropriate time for an international conference, but we are not at that stage now and I don’t expect that we will be there by the Fall. We need to continue to focus our efforts on the disengagement plan.”

At the same time, senior sources in Jerusalem said Israel was reserving final judgment until it heard directly from Putin what he had in mind. Israel came out strongly last year against British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s suggestion to hold an international conference in London, only to accept the idea when Blair came here in December and explained that it would not be a peace conference, but rather a conference to help the Palestinians prepare for the day after disengagement.

Also on Putin’s schedule is a visit to Yad Vashem, and a meeting with Red Army World War II veterans living in Israel.

On Friday he is scheduled to travel to Ramallah for a meeting with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, before flying back to Russia Friday afternoon.

Source: Jerusalem Post
URL: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagena…/p>