Let's make a deal

The news is that Iran has more nuclear material than thought

In their first appraisal of Iran’s nuclear program since President Obama took office, atomic inspectors have found that Iran recently understated by a third how much uranium it has enriched, United Nations officials said Thursday.

And, they have enough to make a bomb

The officials also declared for the first time that the amount of uranium that Tehran had now amassed — more than a ton — was sufficient, with added purification, to make an atom bomb.

In a report issued in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had discovered an additional 460 pounds of low-enriched uranium, a third more than Iran had previously disclosed. The agency made the find during its annual physical inventory of nuclear materials at Iran’s sprawling desert enrichment plant at Natanz.

What's more, the assessment by the Administration's top diplomat is that talking with Iran is not likely to yield results in this area

The Obama administration has already concluded that a diplomatic overture to Iran, one of the central promises of the president's election campaign, is unlikely to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates in a private meeting Monday that it is "very doubtful" a U.S. approach will persuade Iran to relent, said a senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under customary diplomatic rules.

So how else can one employ diplomacy to get Iran to step back from the brink? How about making a deal with Russia?

Obama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the letter that the U.S. missile defense system in Russia's backyard would not be necessary if Iran stopped it own ambitions to build nuclear warheads and long-range ballistic missiles, the officials said.

The letter suggested Russia could have a role in reducing Iran's nuclear threat, and therefore could dissuade the United States from going forward with its plans to establish a missile base in Poland and a radar facility in the Czech Republic.

Russia's response was "Nyet!"

Russia would be willing to discuss a new missile defense structure with the United States but sees Iran's nuclear program as a separate issue, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday...

"If we are talking about any "swaps" (Iran for missile defense), this is not how the question is being put. This would not be productive," Medvedev told a news conference in Madrid, where he was on a state visit.

But he added: "If the new (U.S.) administration shows common sense and offers a new (missile defense) structure which would satisfy European (needs) ... and would be acceptable for us, we are ready to discuss it."

Translation: Stop deploying a missile shield against a potential Iranian nuclear ICBM and we'll think about helping you prevent Iran from developing a nuclear ICBM.

Or not.

Now Russia supplies military arms to Iran, Syria, and Venezuela among others. And what do these countries have in common? Right. They are not friends of America.

So why does anyone think that Russia would be willing to help us with Iran; one of their best customers?

The fact is, talking to Iran and Russia from a position of weakness will not improve the odds of getting Iran to comply.

However, removing countries from Russia's sphere of influence probably has a better chance of improving the US' hand.

In a further sign of thawing U.S.-Syria relations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday the Obama administration would this week send two senior officials to Damascus to work on bilateral ties.

"We're going to dispatch a representative of the State Department, a representative of the White House, to explore with Syria some of these bilateral issues," Clinton said, announcing another step that could help Damascus improve its standing in the West after years of tensions.

"We have no way to predict what the future with our relations concerning Syria might be," she told a news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

I actually agree with this initiative even though I don't hold out much hope.

The problem, of course, is that even if we do make a gain with Syria, the EU is doing it's best to drive Eastern Europe back into the Russian fold.

In time I hope that the Obama Administration will recognize that Russia is not a friend and is, in fact, an enemy.

Trying to trade American security for Russia's help with our enemies is at best a losing proposition.