Today’s Los Angeles Times editorial is exemplary for the current U.S. diplomacy thinking.
– Russia and China delay meaningful U.N. pressure on Tehran –
THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL issued another ultimatum to Iran on Monday: Give up on your nuclear weapons program by Aug. 31 — or we’ll hold yet another meeting to discuss your fate.
Of course the U.N. security council issued nothing like this.
How could it, when neither the IAEA nor several spy agencies have been able to come up with
the slightes proof of the existance of an Iranian nuclear weapons program.
The Security Council did demand from Iran to suspend research level enrichment of uranium for its civil nuclear program. A dubious demand, as Iran, as a member of the NPT, is entitled to do such research.
Starting from the fact free point of an Iranian weapons program, the LAT editors go one to whine how China and Russia are not in step with U.S. warmongering. Then they have this great idea how to change that:
Russia is particularly vulnerable. Last month, President Bush reversed decades of U.S. policy by backing a civilian nuclear power agreement with Moscow, under which spent fuel from U.S. reactors around the world might be stored in Russia. The deal, which could mean billions of dollars for Russia, isn’t tied to Moscow’s cooperation on Iranian sanctions, but the connection was implied. Negotiations could easily collapse if President Vladimir V. Putin’s regime continues to block sanctions.
This "billions of dollars for Russia" idea is based on a July 8 Washington Post story. There the U.S. administration launched a pre-G8 trial-balloon for such a deal:
A nuclear cooperation agreement would clear the way for Russia to import and store thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel from U.S.-supplied reactors around the world, a lucrative business so far blocked by Washington. It could be used as an incentive to win more Russian cooperation on Iran.
But as reported three days later by Novosti, Reuters and Associate Press the Russians did shoot down that particular balloon immediately.
Russia does not have any plans to reprocess and store spent nuclear fuel from foreign countries, including the United States, an adviser to the federal nuclear agency official said Tuesday.
[…]
Igor Konyshev, a representative of an advisory body working with the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, said: "Russia has never imported, does not import and is not planning to import spent nuclear fuel. Officials who stated otherwise either do not understand the essence of the matter or are attempting to purposefully mislead the public."
But just like the administration, the LAT board does not need facts to pursue diplomacy. It does not understand that two are needed to make a deal. Instead, they have this great idea to blackmail Russia by blocking a business Russia has no interest to pursue at all.
In a month, Russian leaders will have to decide whether their economic and strategic interests lie with Iran or the West.
When the Russians will have decided that, be sure to read the LAT editorial on how treacherous Russia behaved when Putin backtracked form his offer to pay big bucks for valuable U.S. radioactive waste. And how China will have to be punished for that by nuking Tehran.