BAGHDAD The Iranian foreign minister rejected a U.S. offer of direct talks on Iraq during the first visit from a top Iranian official since the new Iraqi government was formed last week.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused the Bush administration of raising "other issues." He did not elaborate, but Washington and Tehran have been sparring over Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran reportedly wants talks with Washington on that issue as well.
At a news conference in Baghdad on Friday with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshiyar Zebari, Mottaki said: "We had decided to have direct talks on the issue of Iraq with the Americans." 
He added: "Unfortunately, the American side tried to use this decision as propaganda and they raised some other issues. They tried to create a negative atmosphere and that’s why the decision which was taken for the time being is suspended." Reuters
A gesture of contempt brought on by their complete victory in Iraq? Why should they talk to us? The Iranian in the picture with Zebari, the Kurdish Sunni Muslim Foreign Minister of Iraq, is not Mottaki, but you get the idea. Zebari has been a great favorite of the Bush Administration. It appears that he thinks that it will be necessary to "get on" with the neighbors when we are a memory in Iraq.
RSS
And the Iraqi foreign minister during that same visit “endorsed the right of Iran to pursue the “technological and scientific capabilities” needed to create nuclear power for peaceful purposes”
Iraqi Minister Backs Iran on Nuclear Research
Heckuva job, Bush-Cheney!
“Russia’s defence minister has confirmed that Moscow intends to honour a controversial deal to supply Iran with surface-to-air missiles.”
snip
“Russia, along with China, is strongly against attempts to impose United Nations sanctions on Iran, which the US accuses of pursuing nuclear weapons.”
Russia to supply Iran missiles
Iraq, Iran, Russia, China – axis of evil????
All
This takes skill. pl
Col. Lang–
An exact summary in two sentences.
Onward to whatever.
Col. Lang,
I have a serious question for you.
Preamble: Back in 1985 I passed up an opportunity to work for a particular agency. I was a BYU student who had experience on the ground (and in jail) in Yugoslavia, a former Eagle Scout, tested out well for linguistic aptitude etc.. The promised station was Islamabad, yet the more I researched and digested re: Afghanistan, it seemed like Russia had stepped into a bear trap; by then, they had also started to exude the distinctive, decaying aroma of Paper Tiger, and even a quick peek into the World Fact Book supported that case.
Amble: The romantic adventure of running Stingers to mujahedin really hooked me, and to be honest if I hadn’t needed to make better money I probably would’ve gone. But then, too, I had previously chosen not to go to West Point, which admittedly had something to do with religious beliefs (no Mormon mission time possible) and a strong desire to chase college girls. On a deeper level, maybe my decisions had more to do with a distaste for threat-mongering to fund new weapons systems. No credible threat on the horizon loomed so I let my childhood conviction to serve as an officer go unfulfilled. Ironically, my current professional field of speech technologies has tangentially put me into The Game.
It seems to me the Paper Tiger smell is getting strong again. If not paper, it’s precarious, yet it still has those big teeth and unmatched force projection capability. Figuring out these current psych jobs who grasp the reins is tricky, and there should be a hazmat suit for climbing into their heads, but we’ve entered the time in the chess or Texas Hold ‘Em game when mathematical options are constrained and choices become very difficult, because they were largely already made. In other words they’ve lost, but they still have the teeth and are tempted to use them.
The question: If nukes, even “tactical” nukes, are used on Iran, what is the “BRIC” response you foresee? Cold and economic, or hot and heavy? Bear in mind my jury is still out, but the VPOTUS once wanted to drop the 101st into Baghdad and play “A Civilization Too Far.” The ripples and waves of a nuclear strike on Iran are worth analyzing, and I suspect you have meditated much on this subject.
(For a financially angled BRIC analysis, see:
http://in.rediff.com/money/2003/oct/16guest1.htm )
I found an interesting article about Ahmedinejad and the occupation of the US embassy that is perhaps worthy a thread of its own, as it is only loosely related with this one.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article571517.ece