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Waltzing with Iran in the Nuclear Ballroom
(Wall Street Journal) Claudia Rosett - Amid the splendors of Vienna, the Iran nuclear talks are waltzing toward a fiasco as Russia threatened this week to change its position on the talks as payback for the West's negative reaction to the invasion of Ukraine. Four months have passed since the U.S. and its partners struck an interim deal with Iran in Geneva, and the parties appear to be talking mainly for the sake of talking. According to a senior U.S. official at the round of meetings that wrapped up on Wednesday, "We understand each other's concerns." Meanwhile, without dismantling its nuclear infrastructure, Iran is enjoying a visible easing of sanctions and a celebrity comeback on the world stage. For all the smiles at the talks, Iran is publicly stipulating that it won't dismantle its nuclear infrastructure, won't stop enriching uranium, won't abandon building the plutonium factory that is its heavy-water reactor near Arak, and won't stop developing ballistic missiles. In the end, it comes down to the unavoidable fact that the Iranians aren't at the bargaining table to give up the bomb. They've come so they get a breather from sanctions while they finish building it. The writer is journalist-in-residence with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.