Putin's doubts about trip to Iran

Photo: Putin's doubts about trip to Iran

It’s not unquestionable whether Russian President Vladimir Putin's has still plan to visit Iran later Monday as scheduled.

"There is no information that the visit is still planned," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told The Associated Press. He refused to elaborate, but the comments follow a Russian special services warning of a possible attempt to assassinate Putin during his visit.

Earlier Monday, Peskov said that Putin was still planning on arriving in Tehran on Monday evening after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany, and a sudden change in tone was a strong indication that the president was likely to cancel his visit.

The move is certain to anger Iranian officials, who denied reports about the assassination plot. Iran's Foreign Ministry earlier Monday insisted Putin was planning on visiting Tehran.

"Mr. Putin will be arriving this evening. ... Putin and other heads of Caspian Sea states will be coming to Tehran to attend the summit," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.

Hosseini also dismissed reports about a plot to assassinate Putin as disinformation spread by adversaries hoping to spoil Russian-Iranian relations.

"Such kinds of false news won't have any impact on the plans that we have for (Putin's) visit," Hosseini told a press conference Monday.

Russia's Interfax news agency, citing a source in Russia's special services, said Sunday that suicide terrorists had been trained to carry out the assassination.

Putin's visit to Iran, during which he was set to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and attend Tuesday's summit of Caspian Sea countries, would be the first official visit by a Russian head of state to Iran. No Kremlin leader has traveled to Iran since Josef Stalin in 1943, for a wartime summit with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.