China's UN ambassador Zhang Yesui said Tuesday it is too early to contemplate new sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work, and called for more diplomacy.Iran bought China's Security Council veto and China won't disappoint their customer, Iran. China's veto is an effing valuable thing, as a certain Chicago mayor would understand.
But China doesn't have to go it alone. I figure the Chinese have a gentlemen's agreement with Russia to make sure only one of them gets to sound reasonable about sanctions at any one time. When one gets a concession from America in exchange for a vague expression of theoretical support for sanctions on Iran, the other holds the line.
It's been China's turn to be the bad guys for a while now, when does Russia tag China out?
Of course, not that I mean to imply that we are pushing toward UN sanctions on Iran, with only China and Russia standing in our way. Our Secretary of State is in no hurry to claim any new deadline for Iran, after Iran ignored the December 31, 2009 deadline:
Clinton said the administration is consulting with other nations about new sanctions, but she stressed that this does not mean the administration is abandoning its effort to start a dialogue with Iran.
There is no hard-and-fast deadline for Iran to respond, she said.
I wonder how those consultations with Russia and China are going?
But we won't wait forever, she said. Which is logical. After all, it won't take "forever" for Iran to get nuclear weapons. At which point sanctions become moot, I suppose.
