Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will seek Tuesday to persuade Russian President Dmitry Medvedev not to sell weapons to Iran and Syria, but with little chance of success, according to diplomatic sources quoted by Haaretz. At the opening of Olmert's visit to Moscow on Monday night, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the prime minister that Russia is committed to stopping Iranian nuclearization for military purposes.
Olmert asked Lavrov to step up his country's "involvement in the international efforts to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons," according to an official from Olmert's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting's content was not officially made public. Olmert also urged Russia to "prevent weapons from Syria from reaching extremist elements in Lebanon, such as Hizbullah," and support Israeli-Syrian peace talks.
Iran says it plans to buy Russia's advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, which could target aircraft sent to destroy its nuclear facilities. There are reports that Russia has already supplied Iran with those missiles. Israel says it was able to neutralize a similar defense system in a recent simulation of an attack on Iran over Greece. Syria reportedly has asked to buy the S-300 or the S-8 system. Russia has not confirmed the reports, but Lavrov said recently his government was prepared to sell Syria arms of a "defensive character."
Syrian military leaders marked the 35th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War Monday by saying that Syria was interested in peace, not war, according to the official Syrian news agency SANA. An editorial published by Syrian newspaper Tishreen stated that the indirect peace talks with Israel constitute part of Syria's strategy to recover its lost land. The editorial also called for Arab solidarity and joint action in light of the challenges facing the Arab world. The Yom Kippur War, in which the Syrian and Egyptian armies worked together to attack Israel, is viewed as an example of such cooperation.
Russia is not expected to accede to Israel's request that it change its position on Iran's nuclear program. Russia objects to harsher international sanctions on Iran and has already provided low-grade enriched uranium for Iran's nuclear reactor in Bushehr, which is due to begin operating next year. Moscow is also in preliminary negotiations with Tehran to build two more reactors for electricity production in Iran.
Iran delivered a letter from its chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana Monday which Tehran said stressed that pressure would not resolve the dispute over the Iranian nuclear program. Iran says its uranium-enrichment program is only for electricity generation, but is under United Nations' sanctions over past undeclared activity and its failure to prove its intentions are wholly peaceful.
Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said on Monday he 
Tehran... stressed that pressure would not resolve the dispute over the Iranian nuclear program.
was not certain the world can stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Scheffer told a told a World Policy Conference organized by France's IFRI foreign affairs think tank that NATO did not have a direct role to play in the issue, but said he was worried that the United Nations had failed to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. "My concern is that the Security Council, as we speak, is rather incapable of coming to further conclusions on further sanctions," Scheffer said.
Iran has a series of medium-range missiles, which experts say could target Israel. Tehran has also said it is working on long-range missiles. Scheffer added that he was equally concerned about Iran's drive to develop its missile capabilities. "What is as dangerous is the missile technology which is also developing at a fast pace," he said. "This becomes an element for the security of the United States and of course Europe."
As a result of Iran's nuclear activities, Scheffer said he would never expect Israel to abandon its own, unconfirmed nuclear arsenal. "As we all know, Israel never admits to what it has, but I do not see very many arguments for the Jewish state to abandon its potential," he said.