Obama offered Russia deal on Iran

President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Russia’s President in February suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defence system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long range weapons, American officials said on Monday.

The letter to President Dmitri A. Medvedev was hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago. It said the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.

The officials who described the contents of the message requested anonymity because it has not been made public. While they said it did not offer a direct quid pro quo, the letter was intended to give Moscow incentive to join the US in a common front against Iran.

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World worried about its nukes, Iran fires satellite

Iran said on Tuesday it had launched what it described as its first satellite produced domestically as part of an effort to build a space industry. The launch on Monday, coinciding with celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, came at a time when the United States and other powers are worried about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its deployment of long-range ballistic missiles with potential military uses.

It also came soon after President Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward Iran, conditionally offering dialogue after years of increasing tension over fears that Tehran wants to develop nuclear missiles — which Iran’s leaders deny.

The official news agency, IRNA, said the satellite was launched using a Safir-2 rocket and was “successfully set into orbit.” The satellite was named Omid, meaning hope, IRNA said, and was sent into space as a “data-processing satellite project” that began in March 2005 as “the first practical step toward acquiring national space technology.”

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