Putin confirms Iran visit, brushes off ‘plot’ reports

WIESBADEN – Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted he would push ahead with a visit to Iran yesterday despite reports of a possible assassination plot by suicide bombers.

“Of course I am going to Iran,” Putin told a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the German spa city of Wiesbaden. “If I listened to what the security services said, I would never leave my home,” Putin said.”They have to do their work and we, along with the chancellor and our other colleagues, have to do ours.”Russia’s Interfax news agency, citing a source in the Russian special services, had reported that a group of suicide bombers would try to kill Putin in Tehran, where he was due to fly later yesterday from Wiesbaden.Putin will attend a summit of Caspian Sea nations heads of state today and hold talks with Iranian officials, in the first visit to Iran by a Kremlin chief since Joseph Stalin, well over half a century ago.Iranian officials had also insisted the visit would go ahead, rejecting the reports of the assassination bid as a plot by the Western media to wreck ties between Tehran and Moscow.”The reports in some media are completely without foundation and part of a psychological war waged by enemies to disrupt relations between Iran and Russia,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told AFP.”Such erroneous reports will have no effect on the programme already decided for Putin’s visit to Tehran”, Hosseini added.Hosseini said that major security precautions had already been taken on both sides, while the Iranian press reported that Putin’s armoured car had already been airlifted to Tehran for his visit.Iran has regularly hosted allies who share its antipathy towards the United States such as Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, or Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.But a visit by a statesman of Putin’s stature – whose country is a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council – is a major event.Nampa-AFP”If I listened to what the security services said, I would never leave my home,” Putin said.”They have to do their work and we, along with the chancellor and our other colleagues, have to do ours.”Russia’s Interfax news agency, citing a source in the Russian special services, had reported that a group of suicide bombers would try to kill Putin in Tehran, where he was due to fly later yesterday from Wiesbaden.Putin will attend a summit of Caspian Sea nations heads of state today and hold talks with Iranian officials, in the first visit to Iran by a Kremlin chief since Joseph Stalin, well over half a century ago.Iranian officials had also insisted the visit would go ahead, rejecting the reports of the assassination bid as a plot by the Western media to wreck ties between Tehran and Moscow.”The reports in some media are completely without foundation and part of a psychological war waged by enemies to disrupt relations between Iran and Russia,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told AFP.”Such erroneous reports will have no effect on the programme already decided for Putin’s visit to Tehran”, Hosseini added.Hosseini said that major security precautions had already been taken on both sides, while the Iranian press reported that Putin’s armoured car had already been airlifted to Tehran for his visit.Iran has regularly hosted allies who share its antipathy towards the United States such as Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, or Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.But a visit by a statesman of Putin’s stature – whose country is a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council – is a major event.Nampa-AFP