U.S., Russians divided on how to push Iran

The setback does not doom the Obama administration's hopes for diplomatic progress this year on Iran. Nor does it nix another high-priority administration goal: reversing a recent slump in relations with Moscow.

But it muddies the outlook for persuading Iran that painful penalties loom if the regime fails to satisfy U.S. and international concerns that its nuclear program is aimed at building atomic weapons.

On her visit to Moscow this week — her first since becoming secretary of state — Clinton had hoped for a public signal that Russia would consider new sanctions if Iran refused to come clean about its nuclear intentions. Just last month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had raised U.S. hopes by saying that while sanctions are rarely productive “in some cases they are inevitable.”

U.S. officials hailed his statement as a shift in tone, but on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov seemed to backtrack by saying his government believes that threatening to impose further sanctions is counterproductive as long as diplomacy has a chance to succeed.

“At the current stage, all forces should be thrown at supporting the negotiating process,” Lavrov said at a joint Moscow news conference with Clinton. “Threats, sanctions and threats of pressure in the current situation, we are convinced, would be counterproductive.”

Where Washington and Moscow seem to split is on the value of publicly threatening sanctions while diplomacy is still in progress.

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