RUSSIA ENDS OBAMA'S IRAN ILLUSIONS - AT 7:15 P.M. ET:  The level of contempt that other nations are expressing for President Obama grows by the day.  It's pretty clear that tough-minded foreign ministries, especially in the shadier nations, cannot take this man seriously and are certainly not afraid of him. 

Now Russia is making it clear that it has no intention of going along with Obama's "plan" to impose tougher sanctions on Iran if Iran fails to negotiate seriously over nuclear weapons.  From The New York Times:

MOSCOW — The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, on Thursday all but ruled out imposing new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, brushing aside growing Western concerns that Iran had made significant progress in recent months in a bid for nuclear weapons.

Mr. Lavrov said he believed that a new set of proposals that Iran gave to European nations on Wednesday offered a viable basis for negotiations to end the dispute. He said he did not believe that the United Nations Security Council would approve new sanctions against Iran, which could ban Iran from exporting oil or importing gasoline.

COMMENT:  Will this make any difference to Obama?  Probably not.  He knows that the in-the-tank media will support him, and compare anyone asking for real toughness toward Tehran to Dick Cheney.  If Russia vetoes tougher sanctions in the UN, Obama will probably say he's engaged in "ongoing consultations," or some such phrase, with friendly nations on the "next step." 

He will, of course, rap BUSH (!!) for unilateralism, and make it appear that his multilateral approach will be far more successful.  It won't be, of course, but the parlor goers in Georgetown and Cambridge, Massachusetts, will applaud politely.

We are heading for international trouble, and so few people seem to care.  There was no attention paid to Iran by the TV outlets today, but plenty of time was devoted to that congressman who engaged in an improper outburst during Obama's speech last night.  After all, we must maintain decent priorities.

September 10, 2009