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Dealing with Tehran: The Return of Diplomacy

(TIME) Joe Klein - The real surprise was the Russians and Chinese signing on to a new round of sanctions. The Russians were not pleased that they had to learn about the secret Iranian nuclear facility in Qum from the U.S. And they were definitely not pleased when the Iranians said they'd be more comfortable sending their uranium to Turkey than to Russia. That fed Russian suspicions that the Iranians and Turks were cooking up a deal to build a pipeline that would funnel natural gas from Turkmenistan and Iran through Turkey to Europe, breaking an effective Russian monopoly. The Chinese have also not been overly pleased with Iran. China prizes stability, and the Iranian negotiating style is mercurial, to say the least. The Chinese have negotiated an estimated $20 billion in oil-development deals with Iran, but only a fraction have actually been signed and an even smaller fraction activated. Clearly, the Iranians are using the Turkey-Brazil deal as yet another means to delay or avoid compliance with the nuclear nonproliferation treaty to which Iran is a signatory. Unfortunately, Iran is still merrily enriching uranium at levels that are approaching weapons-grade, and it isn't likely to stop anytime soon.
2010-05-21 09:28:28
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