BELGIUM: East-West sparks fly at OSCE meeting and France sees possible deal on Iran.

East-West sparks flew at a meeting of Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Monday (December 4) as Washington launched a thinly veiled attack on Moscow for using economic clout to pressurise small neighbours. Russia hit back, criticising the East-West bloc for overreaching itself and accusing voices within it of trying to force through "one-sided" solutions to so-called frozen conflicts in former Soviet states left over from the Cold War. Moscow's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused supposedly independent structures within the 56-member OSCE, which was created in 1975 as a forum for East-West cooperation in the Cold War, of judging rather than helping states resolve problems. U.S. Under-secretary of State Nicholas Burns told the meeting there were many instances of "backsliding" on human rights by OSCE states and cited the example of Moscow ally Belarus. In a thinly veiled reference to Russian support for separatists in breakaway regions of Moldova and Georgia, he added: "Some OSCE countries are resorting to economic and financial pressure to impose on their neighbours." "Some OSCE countries are resorting to economic and financial pressure to impose their will on their neighbours. Two members of our organisation in particular are under tremendous pressure: in Moldova and Georgia, protracted conflicts and external threats impede the full economic and democratic development of sovereign states creating unsecured borders undermining their territorial integrity ad sovereignty and hampering the process of regional integration. So long as these countries remain torn apart from within and as long as open support for separatist regimes continues from without, these two countries will find it harder to realise their potential," he said, urging Russia to complete troop withdrawals from both," Burns said. Lavrov responded by saying the OSCE needed to reform itself if it did not wish to disappear and blamed some OSCE members of patronising others with regards to human rights and the frozen conflicts. "It is indisputable that we are aiming to uphold universal principles. We do see a certain nuancing as to how these values are upheld. There must be unconditional observance of principle of equality of states without any attempt to preach to anyone or discipline anyone or hold up certain principles that are not been approved by consensus within the OSCE. There's never been agreement that independent states should be divided into categories. The resolutions should enable us to calibrate or grade candidates. We have support Kazakhstan's bid to the chairmanship of the OSCE," Lavrov said. He added that the organisation needed to focus on issues like the fight against terrorism or drug trafficking, or risk irrelevance. Washington and Moscow differ too over energy-rich Kazakhstan's bid to take over the OSCE chairmanship in 2009. Lavrov said Russia backed the bid, but Washington and some European states argue the former Soviet state, which has never had an election deemed fair by Western observers, falls short of OECD standards and this should be delayed. At the same time, they are loath to rebuff a strategically important energy producer that appears keener to reform than many of its central Asian neighbours. Kazakhstan has so far rejected a compromise and its President Nursultan Nazarbayev has scheduled an official visit to Belgium during the talks to lend weight to the lobbying, but diplomats say a deal is likely to be deferred until next year. Burns expressed regret that it had not been possible to work with Russia to implement a long-standing pact on limiting conventional forces in Europe. Lavrov blamed NATO for preventing its entry into force and said the situation had become critical. French Foreign Minister Douste Blazy held bilateral talks with Russia immediately after his contribution to the plenary. He later said they had discussed Iran's nuclear issue and that six major powers were in a position to agree on the text of a United Nations resolution on how to respond to Iran's nuclear programme. "We are hoping to get the widest possible agreement within the United Nation's Security Council as we did with the adoption of resolution 1696. We want to reaffirm the unity of the international community. We will welcome tomorrow in Paris this meeting to discuss the resolution. I think that we can now reach an agreement on the text," Douste-Blazy told reporters. Political chiefs of the foreign ministries of Germany, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia and France will Tuesday meet to discuss Iran's nuclear programme. The Six are seeking to find common ground on what position to take with Iran as Russia and China, permanent members of the United Nations' Security Council, continue to be hostile to the idea of sanctions against Iran.

ITN Source | December 5, 2006

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