Someone's Bluffing

Speaking ahead of Tuesday's meeting in Paris, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told CNN that backing from France, Britain and Germany would see the implementation of a key U.N. resolution.

"I think you will see a serious Chapter 7 resolution emerge in the next couple of days at the United Nations," [US Undersecretary of State , Nicholas Burns] said.

A resolution under the U.N. Charter's Chapter 7 makes any demands mandatory and paves the way for the use of sanctions and possibly force.

"I think the process would be a Chapter 7 resolution that would ask the Iranians to suspend their nuclear program. If Iran does not comply with that then I think it is inevitable that you'll see an effort for a sanctions resolution to follow probably in a month or so."

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But Iran's foreign minister was quoted on Tuesday as saying that Russia and China had officially informed Tehran they would not back sanctions or military action over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

"The thing these two countries have officially told us and expressed in diplomatic negotiations is their opposition to sanctions and military attacks," Manouchehr Mottaki told the Kayhan newspaper, according to the Reuters news service.

"At the current juncture, I personally believe no sanctions or anything like that will be on the agenda of the Security Council," he said in the interview.

Unless Russia and China lied to Iran or plan on both abstaining from a Chapter VII vote, Mottaki and Burns can't both be right!