Russia blocks U.S. bid to impose sanctions on Iran

[babylonsister]

Russia blocks U.S. bid to impose sanctions on Iran

Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel
McClatchy Newspapers
Sept. 29, 2007 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Opposition led by Russia forced the Bush administration Friday to slow its drive for tighter United Nations sanctions against Iran and give the Islamic republic until late November to disclose its entire nuclear program to U.N. inspectors.

In another measure of Russia's increased influence over U.S. foreign policy, McClatchy Newspapers has learned that President Bush is sending his secretaries of state and defense on a rare joint mission to Moscow to try to persuade the Kremlin to drop its opposition to the deployment of U.S. missile defenses in Europe, two State Department officials said.

State Department officials, who requested anonymity because the visit hasn't been publicly announced, said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also hope to save a key arms-control treaty that limits deployment of conventional military forces in Europe. Russia is vowing to withdraw from the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty partly because of what experts say is the Kremlin's anger over Bush's missile-defense plans.

The talks between Rice and Gates and their Russian counterparts are set for Oct. 12, the officials said. The rare joint mission by Bush's top national security aides underscores the clout that Russia now wields as it reaps windfall profits from rising oil prices and U.S. power ebbs because of the war in Iraq, America's frayed alliances and domestic financial turmoil.

The administration's drive to deploy missile defenses in two countries that were long allied with Moscow, meanwhile, has helped plunge U.S.-Russian relations to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War and called into question Bush's assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a soul mate and strategic ally.

more...

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0929iran-split0929.html

[Joanne98]

1. Putins soul is showing! Suck Condi suck!

[babylonsister]

4. This could slow the cabal down on their bombing aspirations; could be a

good thing.

[Joanne98]

5. Absolutely! Russia still has 2000 nukes pointed at us! Big problem !!!

[whistle]

10. Do you think Shrub* in secret told Putin to go "Cheney" himself during the weekend

...visit in Kennebunkport Maine? I recall some row where Ms. Putin went off by herself and that seemed very strange at the time.

[Joanne98]

11. No! I think shrub got down on his knees and said "Pleeze don't hurt me"

[BlooInBloo]

2. Heh. Now they're gonna blame the war on Russia.

[whistle]

3. Good for Putin, he sees through the Bush/Cheney/neocon BS

...I wish most Americans did! Diplomacy, that has to be the way backed with accountability and open inspections.

BushCo refuses to take that route because of Cheney, oil oligarchies and neoconservatives (a.k.a. Zionists) all united on a hard line for continuous war.

[Joanne98]

6. I started liking Putin when he threw the oligarchs in jail!

[whistle]

8. Yes because we must remember that the oligarchs and fascists

...are cut from the same cloth and use almost identical methods and means to achieve their specific ends, which is the subversion of the U.S. Constitutional rights of all Americans and world domination and rule by the privileged few.

[Joanne98]

9. Yep! A curse on mankind!

[endarkenment]

7. Good for Russia. nt.