Russia with fresh ideas on resolving problems with Iran’s Nuclear ambitions – US hyprocracy to frustrate effort

US rebuffs Russian ingenuity on Iran
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Amid ongoing speculation that Israel is preparing to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities this autumn, Russia has stepped in by proposing a “step-by-step” approach to resolve the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Moscow’s solution is worthy of attention by the United States and other “Iran Six” nations (France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany), as well as Iran’s policymakers. Yet the US appears to be dead set on its dual diplomacy-coercion strategy that has escalated tensions with Iran.

At last week’s meeting between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sergei Lavrov, her Russian counterpart, Lavrov
revealed Russia’s intention to distance itself from the US’s coercive diplomacy against Iran that in the recent months has yielded new unilateral sanctions, deemed as covering both nuclear and human-rights violations.

This move makes it doubly difficult to pursue Russia’s proposal for suspension of sanctions in return for Iran’s compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demands, simply because it ignores the fact that the US has imposed sanctions on such Iranian institutions as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for its alleged suppression of pro-democracy activists.

The Russian focus is on inquires put to Iran by the IAEA and seeks to reinvigorate dialogue to address US and European concerns that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at weapons development – a charge Iran denies.

Rebuffing Lavrov, who is understandably worried that Iran could be weakened as a result of the tough sanctions that invite instability in both Iran and the surrounding Caspian Sea/Central Asia regions, Clinton insisted on maintaining a present course of action vis-a-vis Iran that is deemed excessive by Russia and, to a lesser extent, China. …more