Iran Nuclear Watch: Russia Reneges on Iran United Nations Security Council Resolution

Iran’s former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivers a sermon during Friday prayers ceremonies in Tehran, Iran April 28, 2006. The U.N. Security Council risks committing ‘a historic act of tyranny’ against Iran if it passes a resolution demanding Tehran stop making nuclear fuel, Rafsanjani said on Friday.

AP:Russia now opposes key parts of Iran draft

Russia is unexpectedly opposing key parts of a U.S.-backed Security Council draft resolution on
Iran’s nuclear program, threatening international unity on how to handle Tehran’s defiance, U.N. diplomats said Saturday.

Particularly vexing to the United States and its allies is Moscow’s refusal to endorse language demanding that Tehran freeze uranium enrichment or face potential sanctions. That refusal appears to contradict previous signals suggesting Russia was ready to support a tougher line against Iran.

The diplomats may be surprised but Flap is NOT surprised and most Americans are NOT surprised. The Russians and Russia President Vladimir Putin are just pissed off at President Bush’s refusal to allow WTO membership (at last weeks G-8 summit in St. Petersburg). Hell, Bush should have kicked Putin to the curb on G-8 (7) membership but he hasn’t – so far.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during the session of the State Council in Moscow, Friday, July 21, 2006.

As recently as July 12, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivered a veiled warning to Tehran on enrichment and its refusal to respond to an international offer to negotiate its nuclear program, saying the Security Council “will consider steps appropriate to the situation” if the Islamic republic does not comply.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the dispute, told The Associated Press there was no indication what was dictating the apparent change in Russian tactics.

But it could be as simple as Moscow’s belief that Tehran would not give up its right to enrichment. If so, any resolution demanding it do so and threatening penalties if it does not would escalate the confrontation â€” something the Russians fear could lead to military action.

The Russians and Chinese have NEVER supported UNSC sanctions against Iran. Only fools in the State Department or international diplomatic corps could believe something so preposterous.

China receives over 40 per cent of their oil from Iran and Russia makes Iran petro dollars by selling Iran nuclear reactor technology and services. Neither of these countries have an economic incentive to “cut their nose off to spite their face” economically. And there is a bonus: Iran is glad to poke the United States in the eye every chance it gets and tie up American resources.

A general view shows the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the Iranian Persian Gulf port of Bushehr, 1,200 Kms south of Tehran, in June 2006. France circulated a revised draft resolution in the UN Security Council that legally requires Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.

A draft resolution drawn up by Britain and France and circulated last week among most members of the 15-nation council demands that Tehran “suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities … and suspend the construction” of its heavy water reactor, which can produce plutonium.

One of the diplomats said that demand reflected the agreement among Russia and the five other nations at the July 12 meeting in the French capital but Moscow now was “trying to distance itself from the Paris declaration.”

“They now want to water down the text,” the diplomat said.

Should the United States continue this charade of negotiations?

Maybe

Only if President Bush allows John Bolton to force a tough Chapter 7 resolution against Iran in the UNSC. If China and Russia wish to veto the resolution then let them veto it. No compromise resolution like North Korea. The USA must force the issue in the United Nations and if a vote fails then impose more strict American sanctions with Britain and possibly France.

As Flap has maintained from the beginning when a “point of no return” in Iran’s nuclear enrichment program occurs and it becomes imminent that Iran will achieve a nuclear weapon, it will be the United States and Israel that will stop them.

In the meantime, the centrifuges continue to enrich uranium in Natanz.