WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday that recent differences over Georgia will not stand in the way of arms control negotiations.
Yesterday during Lavrov's first visit to Washington during the Obama administration, they expressed optimism that their countries were easing disagreements that have roiled relations in recent years. Lavrov said through an interpreter that reducing nuclear arsenals was "too important both for Russia and the United States and the rest of the world to hold hostage."
Someone tell it to Israel, will ya?
However, the meeting comes as tensions have flared over NATO exercises in Georgia. Ahead of his arrival in Washington, Lavrov canceled a May 19 meeting at NATO in protest. On Wednesday, Russia announced the expulsion of two Moscow-based NATO officials in a tit-for-tat move after NATO revoked the accreditation of two Russian envoys to alliance headquarters in Brussels.
NATO did not give a reason for the April 30 revocations, but Russia suggested the move was tied to a February espionage scandal in which Moscow was accused of accepting NATO secrets from a spy.
Gee, that's interesting. I don't recall the MSM or Globe mentioning this until now.
Other disagreements that emerged under the Bush administration also remain. Washington and Moscow appear divided on how to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, for instance.
Yesterday, with Clinton, Lavrov repeated Russia's opposition to EU and US sanctions against Iran, insisting that actions should be coordinated within the United Nations' Security Council....
And then we will hear that the U.N. is broken again -- like just before Iraq!
