U.S. says Russia arms deal may put pressure on Iran

By Luke Baker

LONDON (Reuters) - A U.S.-Russian deal on nuclear arms could be finalised by year's end, and Moscow may also be on board by then to help rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, U.S. President Barack Obama's nuclear adviser said on Thursday.

Gary Samore, Obama's special assistant for arms control, terrorism and proliferation, sketched out a process for progress on both diplomatic tracks after Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged in Moscow on Monday to reduce their nuclear arsenals under a new START arms reduction treaty.

"With a lot of hard work I think there's a reasonably good chance that we can reach agreement on a new treaty by the end of this year," Samore told experts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

"And then, in a very specific way, Russia is really critical for us to be successful with Iran. I think the effort to reset the relationship with Russia... that can have the effect of making it more likely that Russia will cooperate with us in dealing with Iran.

"So for now, at least, that strategy of working on a new START treaty in parallel with efforts to improve our coordination on Iran seems to be working and we'll find out later this year whether that ends up being successful."

Asked whether he believed pressure could be brought to bear on Iran ahead of the U.N. General Assembly in September, Samore was doubtful, but said that if there was no progress by year end, then more aggressive steps would be taken.

"President Obama made clear that by the end of this year he will expect to see some tangible results in terms of U.S. engagement with Iran. I think if we really haven't seen any significant progress by that time, I'm sure the U.S. will rather work with the Europeans, Russia and China to try to increase pressure on them through the Security Council," he said.

"We're not there yet. The Iranians need to understand that if this diplomatic opening, this window for engagement, doesn't produce any results it's just inevitable that they will face much stronger action in New York.