Israel’s Foreign Miniser Tzipi Livni urged her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, to exert pressue on Iran to halt its nuclear development program as well as Russia ceasing its program of nuclear assistance to that nation. She complained that Russian shipment of nuclear fuel to Bushehr(Iran’s nuclear site) could be used for military purposes. Russia has been assisting Iran to build the nuclear plant but has halted work until Iran pays money owed. The Russian diplomat denied there was any military aspect to shipping the fuel and urged the avoidance of unilateral action which might exacerbate the situation and result in war. Neither diplomat agreed with the other’s perspective on Iranian nuclear programs.

However, both were able to hammer out an agreement to ease visa problems in order to facilitate travel between Russia and Israel. There are nearly a million people of Russian heritage currently living in Israel and they are interested in visiting Russia. There is currently too much distrust between the Bush administration and Russia. The foolhardy American plan to build missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic has created tension and made more difficult securing Russian cooperation on matters like Iran. Perhaps, Foreign Minister Livni might urge America to abandon such ideas, it would certainly result in a warmer welcome in Moscow.