RUSSIA HAS NO LEVERS TO INFLUENCE IRAQ SITUATION

MOSCOW, May 19 (RIA Novosti) - Deputy Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, professor Vladimir Isayev said at a RIA Novosti roundtable on security in the Arab and Moslem world, "We cannot influence the situation in Iraq. We have no political levers, and our economic levers are too weak." He added that the West, and above all the US, was gradually seizing these levers.

The expert stressed that Russia had preserved huge influence in Iraq. "But in the past few years, we have gradually been detaching ourselves," he added.

"Our diplomats should be active in this area to uphold our national interests," the expert believes.

"Now it is time to form a federal state. It is a long-standing and complicated issue," said Mr. Isayev.

Another participant in the round table, Yevgeny Satanovsky, President of the Israeli and Middle East Studies, stressed, "Russia should not bring troops to Iraq to pull the coalition's chestnuts out of the fire." At the same time, he added that we should be fully aware that Iraq will never be the same again, "If the US troops are immediately pulled out from Iraq, they will leave a country without authorities, which can cease to exist as a single country," said Mr. Satanovsky.