Word: russia
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...this striped-pants nicety were not enough, on April 8, the State Department announced it would join the Europeans, Russia and China in nuclear talks with Iran without condition - meaning that Iran could continue enriching uranium while all sides figured out how to start talking, a concession the U.S. had never made before. The U.S. also backed the package of Western incentives offered to Iran in July 2008 - including economic, humanitarian and development aid - and formally invited the Iranians to talk...
...firms and any companies that do business with them. It also wants to stop credit guarantees for Iranian energy companies and those that work with them, and it wants to halt all investments in the energy sector. And Ross doesn't want to stop there. The U.S. has pushed Russia, a major trading partner of Iran's, to be ready to commit to sanctions on businesses unrelated to Iran's nuclear program - something Russia has resisted. In a secret letter in early February to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Obama wrote that the U.S. would abandon its plans for missile defense...
...Europe and Russia all insist Obama's offer of talks is genuine and remains on the table. Perhaps the presidential election in Iran will bring a significant change; perhaps Tehran will negotiate its nuclear program back into compliance with international treaties. But few of those involved in Iran policy expect such events to happen. Dennis Ross has spent the first months of the Obama Administration peeling carrots. Don't be surprised if you see him soon sharpening sticks...
...those targeting Iran's ailing energy sector; Iran sits on the world's third largest oil reserves, but it loses as much as 500,000 barrels a year in production capacity and what it does produce it has little ability to refine, importing up to 50% of its gasoline. Russia has said it does not support sanctions beyond those targeting businesses with direct ties to the nuclear and missile programs in Iran...
...strategic quagmire. The tactical support of governments in the region is becoming increasingly vital for U.S. plans to bring stability to Afghanistan. Central Asian countries also sit atop a significant chunk of the world's untapped oil and natural gas reserves, assets that are eyed covetously by both neighboring Russia and China, as well as the West. Yet the region - dominated by corrupt and repressive regimes - is itself precariously poised, home to its own native Islamist insurgencies vulnerable to domestic upheaval. "There is the possibility for really unpredictable change," says Jeffrey Mankoff, a fellow for Russian studies at the Council...