All Options Open

"Any additional sanctions against Iran will be seen in the international community as an instrument for regime change in Iran. That approach is unacceptable to us, and the Russian side does not intend to consider such proposals." Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov

Between Russia and China, both heavyweights of constant dissent on the UN Security Council, what's to become of Iran's nuclear program? New sanctions. A series of four sanctions pricked the Islamic Republic Iran, but did nothing substantive to dissuade it from its determined course of action. Sanctimonious Russia feels entitled to pull its weight because it has traditionally been an ally of Iran.

And neither China nor Russia would assent to political interference that would unsettle trade and energy interests that so greatly benefit them. For they see no threats to their own comfortable existence emanating from Iran. Russia has invested heavily in nuclear infrastructure in Iran, and will never see a return on its investment in funding repaid if a military attack to destroy the nuclear infrastructure occurs.

Finally, with the absence of Mohamed ElBaradai as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a report has been issued that clarifies the situation, and identifies those areas of concern respecting Iran's covert and illegal work to perfect a nuclear warhead and a system for long-range delivery, along with an explosives-triggering device. Its enriching of uranium for weapons-grade material has long been a known fact.

The IAEA identified Iran's weapons project, the AMAD plan (!?atrocious mutual assured destruction?!) as one that would be:

"useful in the development of a nuclear explosive device. "Among such equipment, materials and services are: high speed electronic switches and spark gaps (useful for triggering and firing detonators); high speed cameras (useful in experimental diagnostics); neutron sources (useful for calibrating neutron measuring equipment); radiation detection and measuring equipment (useful in a nuclear material production environment); and training courses on topics relevant to nuclear explosives development (such as neutron cross section calculations and shock wave interactions/hydrodynamics)."

More equipment was being installed for enriching uranium, at a highly fortified site under a mountain near Qom. Computer modelling studies for a nuclear device, neutronic behaviour and nuclear explosive yield also identified. "The application of such studies to anything other than a nuclear explosive is unclear to the Agency."

The world's attention is focused on the report, and the details it reveals. It is well understood that all the circumvention of reality that Iran has been engaged in has been a screen to shield it from further scrutiny. It is an accepted fact that Iran has violent designs against another state in the Middle East, for it has trumpeted its intention even within the United Nations.

Should Iran choose to target Israel for destruction, it would not stop there. It has an enemy also in Saudi Arabia whom Iran feels is not a worthy custodian of Mecca and Medina. Iran's autocratic rulers would enjoy attacking American troops located within its orbit of rocketry; were it to do so, what would Russia do? Sit back and enjoy the spectacle?

"We strongly believe that sanctions are effective or could be effective if they are ... paralyzing enough, that diplomacy could work if enough unity could be synchronized between the major players, but that no option should be removed from the table", Ehud Barak, Israeli defence minister.

And remember: neither China nor Russia have been obligingly on line with sanctions against Iran.

"The possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to be applied than the application of a diplomatic option", Ehud Barak, Israeli defence minister.

IAEA's report revealed that engineering groups on Project III, a new warhead for a Shabab 3 missile examined "the development of a prototype firing system that would enable the payload to explode both in the air above a target, or upon impact of the re-entry vehicle with the ground." When shown the information, the report went on, Iran ... "dismissed [it] as being 'an animation game.'"