The Furtive, Destructive End Game

Russia has been arguing for the inclusion of the Islamic Republic of Iran in proposed 'peace talks' between the United States, Russia, the European Union, the Syrian regime and the Syrian rebels. While Russia agitates for Iran to join the talks, invitations have been extended as onlookers to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan to attend as well.

Since the United States and France are urging that as part of a peace settlement Bashar al-Assad will have to step away from the presidency, and there is no such argument supported by Russia, without such assurances the rebels will simply boycott any notion of peace talks.

This, at a time when over nine million Syrians have been identified by the United Nations as being in need of humanitarian aid due to dire conditions of deprivation. People are starving, their access to food, potable water and medicines cut off by the warring sides.

The fantasy that having achieved the purported destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenals represents a breakthrough in the carnage that permeates the country is belied by the reality that people are dying from the violent conflict, from terrorist atrocities and from starvation.

If Russia has its way and Iran is accepted as a partner in the peace talks, it can only portend that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is assured of remaining where he is. He is, in any event, feeling pretty confident over the role that Russia played in forestalling any external interference in the conflict by anything like NATO or US overflights, impairing his air force's ability to aerial-bomb rebel targets in towns and cities where the residents become targets.

The imminent attack promised by the United States after proof-positive of the regime's chemical attack on a Damascus suburb killing thousands and injuring many more represented a dire threat that was handily and skilfully dislodged by President Vladimir Putin, who took the initiative and gave Barack Obama a back seat on further proceedings, through a diminishing of his authority. The U.S. is now seen as a paper tiger, disappointing Turkey, Jordan, Israel and famously, Saudi Arabia.

Trust in the competency, decision-making and reliability of the United States is at an all-time low, in absolute freefall in the Middle East. The intractable emergency looming threateningly large with the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear agenda where it is anticipated that they will successfully be able to create nuclear-tipped bombs to be delivered by more technologically-advanced ballistic missile systems is thought to be a year away, perhaps less.

Iran has been engaging in its usual subterfuge, an illusion that it has decided to cooperate fully with its critics in exchange for a relaxation of the crippling sanctions that have devastated its economy. This is a mirage, one that appears to have successfully snared the gullible international community. The willingness of the Obama administration to offer yet another 'opportunity' to Iran to surrender its nuclear ambitions has been spurned, but the American president doesn't appear to have noticed that.

Iran has declared without equivocation that it will never submit its 'right' to continue its nuclear agenda for energy production and to produce medical isotopes, for which it would have no need of the enriched uranium its spinning centrifuges currently produce at breakneck speed in a feverish run at circumventing full disclosure and meeting the demands of the IAEA and the international community that it cease and desist its true agenda motivated by a deep desire to threaten, intimidate and perhaps attack its neighbours.

So far, Iran has been able to bluff its way past the suspicions of those who understand what its end-game is, but declare themselves prepared to offer new opportunities for the country to redeem itself, while the Republican Guard and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei proceed with their plans under the guise of disgruntled obedience, insisting on the lifting of sanctions.

But while the United States and the European Union and the IAEA press Iran for compliance, Russia and China placidly support Iran's 'rights' in denial of its intentions.