By Mark Landler
MOSCOW — In a tart public clash over Iran, Secretary of StateHillary Rodham Clinton said here Thursday that the planned opening this summer of a Russian-built nuclear power plant in Iran would send the wrong signal at a time when the West was trying to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said the much delayed plant, near the Iranian city of Bushehr, would go into operation this summer, though he did not give a date. His comments, made at a meeting of nuclear officials, came on the day that Mrs. Clinton arrived here for talks with Russian leaders about an arms control agreement, Iran, the Middle East, and other issues.
“We think it would be premature to go forward with any project at this time, because we want to send an unequivocal message to the Iranians,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference after meeting with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov. But Mr. Lavrov insisted that the Bushehr cooperation played “a special role” in keeping international inspectors inside Iran, and “ensuring that Iran is complying with its nonproliferation obligations".
Mrs. Clinton became the second top American official in two weeks to be surprised by unwelcome news on foreign soil. The Israeli government announced housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem two weeks ago, during a visit to the country by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., creating some of most serious friction in years between the United States and Israel.
A senior American official played down the clash over Iran in Russia, saying he did not believe Mr. Putin intended to embarrass Mrs. Clinton. The United States, he said, did not oppose Russia’s involvement in the Bushehr plant, only the timing of Tuesday’s announcement.
“It’s not about her visit,” the State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said to reporters. “It’s about the potential for a mixed message, as we are working to put pressure on Iran”.
Russia has been more open to a harder line toward Tehran since the Iranian government rebuffed a proposal to ship much of its lightly enriched uranium to Russia and France to be enriched to a higher level to fuel a research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes.
But China has so far insisted on using diplomacy rather than additional sanctions, which has left the United States scrambling to line up international support for a resolution in the United Nations Security Council. Russia or China, as two of the Security Council’s five permanent members, could veto a sanctions measure.
On the arms control pact, Mr. Lavrov expressed confidence last week that a deal could be reached by the end of the month.
That would allow President Obama to present the agreement, which would make deep cuts in the nuclear arsenals of both countries, at an international summit meeting on nuclear nonproliferation next month in Washington.
“Certainly this is a moment when we’ve made a lot of progress, and we certainly hope to make more, and the secretary’s involvement is extremely important,” the under secretary of state for political affairs, William J. Burns, told reporters traveling to Russia on Mrs. Clinton’s plane.
“We want to move ahead to finish the agreement,” he said.
In Moscow, Mrs. Clinton was to meet with President Dmitri Medvedev as well as Mr. Putin. She was also to meet with leaders from the European Union and the United Nations to discuss the fallout from a sharp conflict between the United States and Israel over the Israeli government’s announcement last week of a housing plan for Jews in East Jerusalem.
Although an arms deal could theoretically be announced while Mrs. Clinton is in Moscow, the months of tortuous negotiations have made administration officials extremely leery of predicting the end of a process they had once claimed would be wrapped up by the end of last year.
In recent weeks, Mr. Obama has thrust himself into the negotiations, speaking twice by phone with Mr. Medvedev in the last three weeks. In the first call, Mr. Obama was surprised to hear the Russian president raise several fresh hurdles, including the revised American plan for a missile-defense system, which Mr. Obama believed had been settled by negotiators in Geneva.
“Every time you think you’re done, new issues pop up in Geneva, and what seemed like trivia become major political issues,” said another senior administration official, speaking on the condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Now, both sides said the talks were back on track, though administration officials conceded that there were still differences over a handful of issues like transparency and the missile-defense system. Russia reacted badly to an announcement in January that Romania would host part of the system, and reintroduced a demand that the treaty contain language limiting the system.
Mr. Obama held a second, more upbeat call with Mr. Medvedev last Saturday, and the White House hopes that Mrs. Clinton’s meeting with the Russian president at his dacha will build on that momentum.
“Otherwise, it does not get done,” the official said. “Otherwise, it drags on like the last Start Treaty, which I think took nine years”.
The agreement, which would replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991, or Start, would be a symbol of the new relationship Mr. Obama is trying to forge with Russia. It would reduce deployed strategic warheads and delivery systems by at least 25 percent.
Citing another sign of better ties between the countries, officials said that 30 percent of supplies for American troops in Afghanistan were now being shipped through Russian territory, either by airplane or train.
