Azerbaijan, Baku, June 20 / Trend , E.Tariverdiyeva/
The post-election situation in Iran may become an acute topic of discussion in the future negotiations between U.S. and Russian Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitriy Medvedev, famous American Political Scientist Mark Katz believes.
"If the protests in Iran continue, this will be a tense meeting [July meeting of Russian and U.S. presidents] because the Russians will have convinced themselves that this is the work of the Americans, even though it is not," Professor of the George Mason University Department of Public and International Affairs Katz wrote to Trend in an email.
U.S. President Barack Obama will pay an official visit to Russia on July 6-8 upon Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev's invitation, the Kremlin press service reported on June 18.
The agreement on Obama's visit to Moscow has been reached during the two leaders' April meeting in London before the G20 summit. At that time, Medvedev stated that he is satisfied with familiarization with his American counterpart and hopes for an interesting and fruitful meeting in the Russian capital.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad garnered 63.6 percent of votes and won the presidential elections held on June 12 under supervision of the Interior Ministry and Guardian Council of Iran. The remained three candidates stated that the elections were accompanied with mass falsifications.
Mehdi Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi demanded to re-hold the presidential elections. On June 17, the head of the committee to safeguard votes at the Mousavi pre-election headquarters Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur said at a news conference that it is necessary to establish a committee investigating the truth to re-examine the whole voting process.
In many cities of Iran, millions of people hold protest actions due to the results of the vote in the presidential election. The participants of the actions faced brutal actions of the authorities. It was officially confirmed that 13 participants were shot.
Katz said the longer the Iranian protests continue, the more the Obama Administration will be forced to side with the Iranian opposition.
"It will simply look bad in the U.S. and the West if he does not," he said.
Moscow, though, will have no interest in this, he believes. So Iran is likely to be a difficult issue, he added.
"Progress could be made, though, on some bilateral issues such as arms control and trade," Katz said.
Situation in Iran to likely become acute topic of talks between U.S., Russian presidents: expert
