A U.S. decision to bend policy and sit down with Iran at nuclear talks fizzled Saturday, with Iran stonewalling Washington and five other world powers on their call to freeze uranium enrichment.
In response, the six gave Iran two weeks to respond to their demand, setting the stage for a new round of U.N. sanctions.
Iran's refusal to consider suspending enrichment was an indirect slap at the United States, which had sent Undersecretary of State William Burns to the talks in hopes the first-time American presence would encourage Tehran into making concessions.
After five years of Europeans chatting with the Iranians, at least our involvement led to a time limit on Iran's reply. It's been one long "no" thus far, so I don't expect the Iranians to abandon their drive for nuclear weapons just because one of our diplomats was sitting there. I know our Left has said that our mere appearance would make Iranians melt and give up their nuclear ambitions, but were some of our diplomats that deluded? Sorry. Asked and answered.
So we talked. Or just listended, depending on who you believe. Nothing changed. I say we leave the talks to the Europeans who seem to enjoy that sort of thing and start preparing to destroy the mullah regime and actually do something about the gathering threat.
On the bright side, at least we're checking off those boxes on the "last resort" before going to war list.
