The Times-Online reports: Israel has promised the Kremlin that it will not launch an attack on Iran, according to President Medvedev.

Publicly at least, Israeli leaders have always refused to rule out the possiblity of a military strike against Iran’s nuclear programme if it refuses to stop enriching uranium. But Mr Medvedev said that Shimon Peres, his Israeli counterpart, gave such an assurance during a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi last month.

In an interview with CNN aired today, Mr Medvedev said an Israeli assault would be “the worst thing that can be imagined”, leading to “a humanitarian disaster, a vast number of refugees, Iran’s wish to take revenge and not only upon Israel, to be honest, but upon other countries as well”.

He added: “But my Israeli colleagues told me that they were not planning to act in this way and I trust them.”

Mr Peres visit came the day after Russian forces boarded a cargo ship allegedly carrying S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran.

In a mystery that has yet to be cleared up, the Arctic Sea was hijacked before passing through the English channel. Russia has denied that it was carrying arms.

After the meeting, Mr Peres told journalists Mr Medvedev had promised to reconsider a contract to sell S-300s to Iran.

“When he visited me in Sochi, Israeli President Peres said something important for us all: ’Israel does not plan to launch any strikes on Iran, we are a peaceful country and we will not do this’,” Mr Medvedev said.

Asked about the possible delivery of S-300s, Mr Medvedev said that Russia had the right to sell defensive weapons to Iran.

“Our task is not to strengthen Iran and weaken Israel or vice versa but our task is to ensure a normal, calm situation in the Middle East,” he said.

On Western calls for sanctions on Iran, he said such moves were often ineffective and action should only be taken as a last resort. “Before speaking of applying additional sanctions, we should make full use of the existing possibilities,” he said. “We should be absolutely confident that we have no other option.”

Analysts have been watching for Russian concessions on Iran after the White House on Thursday cancelled plans to site elements of a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, but CNN interviewed Mr Medvedev on Tuesday, before the announcement.

The Russian President said that he was hopeful Moscow’s relations with Washington would improve under President Obama and described the chances of an agreement on a new treaty to reduce strategic nuclear weapons by year-end as“quite high”.

But he was critical of mixed messages coming from the White House. Shortly after Obama hailed a “reset” of ties during a visit to Moscow in July, the US Vice-President Joe Biden said Russia’s shrinking population base and “withering economy” would push it to make deals on nuclear arms reductions.

“This is simply an incorrect move,” Mr Medvedev said. “Because while having only started to develop relations… with the Russian Federation, at the same time to strain them in such a way is to make a mistake”.

(Source: Times Online)