Cartoon by Ahmad Baraki

No doubt Iran wants nuclear bomb, Putin told Bush in 2001

Iran International: Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President George W. Bush in 2001 that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons but that Moscow would not assist Tehran in acquiring sensitive technologies, according to a newly released memorandum of their first face-to-face meeting.

“There is no doubt they want a nuclear weapon. I’ve told our people not to tell them such things,” Putin said during a restricted session with Bush on June 16, 2001, referring to Iranian inquiries directed at Russian experts, according to the declassified memorandum of conversation.

The remarks appear in notes taken during a one-on-one meeting at Brdo Castle in Slovenia, held shortly after Bush took office, and come amid broader discussions between the two leaders on missile proliferation, non-proliferation and Iran’s regional role.

Putin told Bush that Iranian specialists were pressing Russian experts on what the memo described as “sensitive matters,” but said he had ordered Russian officials not to share information related to nuclear weapons or missile technology.

“I will restrict missile technology to Iran,” Putin said, according to the document, while acknowledging that some Russian actors were interested in profiting from cooperation with Tehran.

Bush, for his part, raised concerns that weapons transfers to Iran could threaten both US and Russian security.

The memo shows the US president sought Moscow’s cooperation on non-proliferation, warning that Iranian access to advanced weapons or delivery systems would be destabilizing.

The exchange also touched on US policy toward Tehran. When Putin suggested Washington might be moving toward improved relations with Iran, Bush rejected that notion.

“That’s not true. Congress makes that completely impossible now,” Bush said, pointing to legislative constraints on any normalization of US-Iran relations even at the start of his presidency.

Putin countered that European states, including Germany, were expanding financial ties with Iran, mentioning a credit line extended by Berlin and arguing that trade in conventional weapons was treated by some countries as a commercial matter.

The document shows that Iran featured repeatedly in the discussion as a proliferation concern alongside North Korea, with Putin portraying Moscow’s engagement with Tehran as constrained by history, geography and security pressures on Russia’s southern borders.

The memorandum was produced as part of a US government record of the meeting and later released through the National Security Archive following a Freedom of Information Act request >>>