Russia and China again block UN action against Iran and North Korea

Yep, no `concensus' yet again.

A week after agreeing with their U.N. Security Council colleagues to act against Iran's nuclear activities, Russia and China are sabotaging any concerted efforts to do so.

In Paris last Wednesday, in view of the total collapse of negotians with the mullahs, the foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany agreed to negotiate a council resolution making it "mandatory" for Iran to stop enriching uranium.

If Iran refused to comply,by an unspecified date in August, they agreed to would "work for the adoption of measures" under an article 7 of the U.N. Charter that allows for economic and diplomatic sanctions.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. This week, Russia and China are again holding up any progress on a draft resolution prepared by European members and backed by the U.S.

China and Russia have both submitted amendments, objecting to the fact the text invokes chapter seven of the U.N. Charter, which can be used to justify the use of sanctions or armed action.

In other words, they want something toothless and meaningless adopted.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton told reporters he hoped the resolution would be passed quickly, but Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin made it very clear that Russia was out to help Iran play for as much time as possible.

"We are not in a rush at all," he said after talks on the resolution. "We are giving some freedom to Iran to respond....nobody's pushing Iran anywhere."

And Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told the Ekho Moskvy radio in an interview that Russia would not support any measures that allowed "the use of force or other coercion."

Which is exactly what Putin said at the G-8 meeting.

In testimony before a Senate committee Thursday, American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Ledeen said there was no reason to believe the U.N. could be counted on to change Iran's behavior.

"The supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has told his associates that Iran now has a 'strategic relationship' with [President Vladimir] Putin's Russia, and that China is so dependent on Iranian oil that it is highly unlikely [Beijing] would vote against Tehran in the Security Council," he said.

True enough. So why all the diplomatic masturbation, Mr. President?
The P5+1 back in in early June offered Iran an incredibly generous package of incentives in return for halting its nuclear activities and asked for a swift decision. Iran's response was to tell them to get bent, and says it will only respond on August 22. The significance of that date and what it could mean can be read about here..

Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani yesterday accused the U.S. of trying to prevent a negotiated settlement of the standoff, and reiterated the government would not reply to the incentive offer until August 22nd.

"If the path of confrontation is chosen instead of the path of dialogue," he said, "then there will be no option for Iran but to reconsider its nuclear policies."

Translation: Iran could stop cooperating with the IAEA and withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Or to put it another way, if the West does nothing and allows Iran to consider its quest for nuclear weapons, they'll go nuclear. if the Westobjects to Iran going nuclear and tries to do something about it, they'll go nuclear.

Lovely.

Russia and China have also intervened to make Security Council steps against North Korea pretty much a joke as well.

Last Saturday, the council passed a resolution condemning the missile launches and seeking to block any cooperation with Pyongyang's missile and non-conventional weapons programs.

BUT....

China and Russia agreed to back the resolution only after language was removed invoking chapter seven of the U.N. charter.