Moscow's Never Seen Evidence of an Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program

"Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program" that is a vague enough phrase that by defining and redefining the phrase itself, with no change in underlying evidence, it is possible to assert either its existence or non-existence.

The US has finessed the issue to the point now that it asserts there was a nuclear weapons program in 2003, but not now. Now the US asserts that there was not a program in 2005, but in 2005 by which time essentially all of the activities and and all of the facilities that are now known were known already, it asserted, using the 2005 definition, that there was a nuclear weapons program.

Russia now, by directly contradicting the US claim that there was a nuclear weapons program in 2003 challenges the US to put forward one definition that it will stand by of what constitutes a nuclear weapons program. The US will not take up that challenge, and future efforts to isolate Iran will suffer because of that.

Anyway, from AP:

"It fully confirms the information that we have: that there is no military element in their nuclear program. We hope very much that these negotiations with Iran will continue," he told reporters after meeting with Rice on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels

... ... ...

But Lavrov on Wednesday said Moscow had not seen any evidence that Iran had, in fact, ever had a nuclear weapons program, not even one that it had given up on four years ago. He also criticized the United States for its missile defense plans.

In exchange for doing what it can to calm Iraq long enough for the Iraqis to ask the US to leave, Iran has not only stalled the sanctions drive over the same time period, but it is unlikely that the sanctions drive will ever again reach the intensity it had on December 2, 2007. The only remaining question is how long will it take, and what will be the fallout from the US accepting Iran as a nuclear capable state.