U.S., Russia play games with Iran ... again

Once again Iran is back in the spotlight, not for a corrupt election and electronic dissent, but for a more worrying trend: nuclear weapons. Ahmadinejad is fairly scary, but an Ahmadinejad with nuclear capabilities is like the playground bully making the cut-throat motion mouthing the words, "You're next."

Iran's claim that the low enriched uranium is merely going to be used as fuel for a medical research reactor has left few convinced. The UN's proposed plan as a mediation effort calls for a middle ground that involves Russia, a country that sustains the vacillating Ross and Rachel status of cooperation with the U.S.

The U.S. desperately needs Moscow's support to block Iran's potential nukes, but this could be a problem as there is a significant difference between the levels of rapport each country has in connection to Iran. Russia and Iran get along rather well with the connections of Russia's trade investments and Iran's unsupportive attitude toward extremists in the North Caucasus. There is also the nagging fear that the U.S. will ride Russia's coattails into the right hand reservation that Moscow has cultivated in the form of technology firms with Iran.

White House relations with President Dmitri Medvedev and his puppeteer, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, are extremely pivotal in this high stakes game of political Risk. The troublesome back-story of the Georgia missile base saga has reared its ugly head again. In mid September, the Obama administration announced that it was dropping the development of missile-defense interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic, but one month later Vice President Joe Biden confirmed plans in Warsaw to integrate Georgia into NATO by establishing ground-to-air missiles. Russia conceivably is raising its eyebrows at these somewhat mixed signals.

But without Russia prepared to back up the UN on sanctions and even on the proposed nuclear development policy, the U.S. has to try to win over its allies harder. The Obama administration is facing one of the most trying tests in foreign policy. Winning over Russia this time will not be like currying support for the 2016 Olympics vote.

A definite interest in the Russia-U.S. relationship must be made, one where our secretary of state actually manages to correlate diplomacy trips with the schedules of sitting heads of state. It does not help garner resolutions when Hilary Clinton is in Moscow, but Vladimir Putin is in China.

Granted, Iran may flake out and pursue a path that leaves the U.S. stuck in a rut, but Moscow will still be a power player because of its clout and alliance with Iran's current arms development. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer is the mandate in effect; and while Russia certainly is not an enemy right now, remember there are no "breaks" in the political relationship spectrum, so don't go looking for an easy score, U.S.