Bush will have to give something substantial to Russia and China to get their support, but he has little to offer and no room to move within his self-created bellicose rhetoric. Will he now fall back on threats to get China and Russia to "come around"? Blackmail, perhaps? It's easy for NATO allies to say things Bush wants to hear, precisely because they know that Russia and China will stand in the way of a U.N.-sponsored invasion,.
story from Xinhua
Russian FM rejects U.S. call for further sanctions against Iran
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed a call by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for further U.N. sanctions on Iran concerning its ambitious nuclear program.
"It fully confirms the information that we have: that there is no military element in their nuclear program," Lavrov told reporters after talking with Rice on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial meeting.
But Lavrov, who came to Brussels for a NATO-Russia Council meeting, expressed his strong hope that "these negotiations with Iran will continue."
Lavrov said earlier that his country has no evidence that Iran had ever had a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of international treaty obligations.
In meeting Lavrov, Rice aimed at persuading Russia to support new sanctions on Iran, despite that a U.S. intelligence report released recently found Iran actually stopped atomic weapons program in 2003.
NATO foreign ministers agreed that adopt a two-track approach in dealing with Iran, who refuses to halt uranium enrichment as it insists the program is for civilian use.
The United States is pushing for a new sanctions resolution in the U.N. Security Council.
Source: Xinhua
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