It's not surprising to find that Iran is again backing away from a deal that would have helped ease the fears that they are attempting to become a nuclear power. The original agreement had holes you could drive a starship through but even that apparently was unacceptable to them.
But what makes them so bold? Perhaps the knowledge that even though Russia was at the negotiating table, their very reminded Iran that no significant action against them would be taken at the UN Security council because Russia still maintains that they will veto any attempt to place sanctions on the country.
Russia is supplying not only arms to Iran, but nuclear material and expertise. All of this would end if sanctions were imposed. In fact Russia, if it wanted to, could severly cripple Iran's nuclear progam all by itself by simply refusing to supply expertise and material. It could threaten to do so unless Iran yielded demands of rigorous monitoring of their nuclear facilities.
But Russia does none of these and publicly maintains it will veto sanctions.
Meanwhile, Russia itself is stomping on the the President's rhetoric of attaining a nuclear-free world by testing a new multiple-warhead missile that if deployed would be in violation of the existing START treaty.
The missile in question is the SS-27
The Russian SS-27, or Topol-M, is an intercontinental-range, ground-based, solid propellant ballistic missile. It represents the pinnacle of ballistic missile technology, incorporating modern fuel and warhead designs, as well as being capable of being launched from both missile silos and Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL) vehicles. Current Russian accounts stress that the SS-27 is invulnerable to any modern anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defenses. Yuriy Solomonov, director of the Moscow Institute of Heat Technology and designer-general of the Topol family of missiles, has stated that the SS-27 will be the foundation of the Russian strategic nuclear arsenal by 2015.
Now in exchange for the Hope that Mocow would help with Iran, the President gave away the missile defense shield for Eastern Europe. The Bush Administration had always claimed that the missile shild was not aimed at Russia, but at rogue nations who would acquire nuclear missiles.
But you know what? They knew about the SS-27 too.
And Russia knew that such a shield would counter the SS-27 as well as missiles from, say, Iran.
When the President threw away the missile shield in Eastern Europe, he got nothing from Russia on Iran and Russia removed the counterbalance to the SS-27 as well as Iran's missiles.
Back in September, The President lauded a UN non-poliferation agreement, but other world leaders took a more cautious view as expressed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy:
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, came close to mocking his American counterpart for the good intentions, which Mr Obama had heralded as an "historic" step towards nuclear abolition, even though it set no specific targets or fresh mandates.
"We live in a real world not a virtual world," the Frenchman told the 15-member council. "And the real world expects us to take decisions.
"President Obama dreams of a world without weapons ... but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.
"Iran since 2005 has flouted five security council resolutions. North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993.
"I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map," he continued, referring to Israel.
The sharp-tongued French leader even implied that Mr Obama's resolution 1887 had used up valuable diplomatic energy.
"If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce our own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons," he said.
Mr Sarkozy has previously called the US president's disarmament crusade "naïve".
The Russians have expressed the same sentiment with their deeds because such words from the Russians would be counter-productive to their cause.
