US, Russia fail to agree Iran stance [And a little new info.]

Financial Times by way of MSNBC ^ | 24MAY06 | Daniel Dombey and Guy Dinmore

[familyop]

"Both Japan and Italy have very significant trading relationships with Iran," the State Department said.

Iran insists its nuclear intentions are purely peaceful and denies it has a covert weapons programme.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies, the London based think-tank, said estimates Iran could produce enough material for a bomb as early as 2008 were "within the margin of error".

[Gay State Conservative]

From now on,we can depend on Russia,China and the EU to *always* either activly oppose us on important matters of peace,freedom and stability or (in the case of the EU) cower trembling in the corner when so much as a harsh word needs to be directed at a nation of 9th Century knuckledraggers like Iran.

Russia and China know that they will benefit from the resulting power vacuum...and the EU *thinks* that it will.

[JasonC]

Nobody will benefit from it. China benefits enourmously from US good will, trade, and a stable world. They both think they become more powerful and important the more trouble they cause, but all the evidence of history says the opposite. They have become important only when they have even temporarily refrained from doing so. And if they get their wish, the resulting chaos will be no kinder to their ambitions in their own regions, than to ours. After they've lost a dozen cities apiece to nuclear terrorists, they might want to go back - but there won't be a way back at that point. It is a slow motion suicide by people who think they are being oh so clever, who are cutting their own wrists.