Putin and Ahmadinejad lead Caspian Sea Tehran summit in reciprocal non-aggression pledge, but Iran disappointed on Bushehr

The Russian president disappointed his Iranian hosts by refusing to set a date for completing the Bushehr nuclear reactor, blaming worn-out equipment from the time of the Shah and “legal issues.” Ahmadinejad accepted his invitation for talks in Moscow.
The presidents of Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan agreed that no Caspian Sea country should be used as a launch-pad for a military strike against a fellow littoral nation.
debkafile‘s sources report this decision has bound member-states hosting US bases to withhold their use for attacking Iran.
On Sept. 22, debkafile reported: “Sitting together at the Caspian Sea Summit next month, Putin and Ahmadinejad will be broadcasting a message to Washington and the nations of Central Asia that the future and security of Caspian natural resources and oil do not depend entirely on their relations with Washington, or even the US military bases going up on their soil. Russia will be posing a stiff challenge to America in Central Asia by holding out the offer of joint-strategic sponsorship with Iran.”
The Caspian summit which opened Tuesday is expected to lead to an agreement on legalizing the status of the rich Caspian resources and dividing them among its five littoral states – to the exclusion of interests outside the region.
The five Caspian nations also confirmed the right of each nation to produce nuclear energy for peaceful ends. Tehran is locked in a standoff with the US and Europe over their conviction that its “peaceful” program is the cover for a weapons drive.
Vladimir Putin, the first Russian president to visit Tehran since the Second World War, said after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week that he has no information of any such drive.
Putin touched down in Tehran after brushing off warnings of an assassination plot in Tehran. debkafile‘s counter-terror sources disclosed exclusively on Sun, Oct. 14, that three terrorist groups, Chechen separatists, al Qaeda and an ultra-radical faction of the Iranian regime had combined for a bid to murder Putin and that the plot was betrayed to Russian security agencies by a Chechen captured on his way to join the conspiracy.