MOSCOW REBUFFS ISRAEL ON IRANIAN NUCLEAR DEAL

. Israeli prime minister Itzhak Rabin said, after meeting September 14 in Moscow with Viktor Chernomyrdin, that he was unable to persuade the Russian prime minister to cancel its sale of nuclear reactors to Iran. In Rabin’s words, Chernomyrdin assured him that the deal would not jeopardize Israel’s security. Russia’s first deputy minister for nuclear energy, Lev Ryabev, ruled out any Russian abrogation of its contract to sell nuclear reactors to Iran. Russian Foreign Ministry officials obliquely rebutted Israel’s objections by underscoring that Israel had failed to join the nuclear non-proliferation pact. On another issue discussed at this meeting, Israel agreed to Russia’s supplying armored personnel carriers to Palestinian paramilitary forces. (5)

Grachev Contradicts Commander on Chechnya Troop Withdrawal.