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Russian Support for Iran Sanctions at Risk amid Georgia Rift

[Christian Science Monitor] Scott Peterson - Fierce American criticism of Russia's military action in Georgia is almost certain to jeopardize a very different U.S. strategic objective: stepping up pressure on Iran with another layer of UN sanctions. "This will make any hope of cooperative effort on Iran much more difficult," says Michael McFaul, a Russia and Iran expert at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Support on Iran, he says, is "without question" the biggest strategic casualty of the renewed U.S.-Russia tension. Iran is "the one place...of high national security interest to the United States where Russia plays a direct role in what we are trying to do. In that sense, it towers over all these other things." "This has come at a very opportune time for Iran," says a Tehran-based political analyst. "Any new rift between the U.S. and Russians would be welcome by Iran...anything that gives Iran more time and a little more headache for the U.S."
2008-08-15 01:00:00
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