US is Losing Grip on China; Russia plans to deliver nuclear fuel to Iran in March 2007

Not so long ago the US put Japan under pressure to break off economic relations with Iran that would be beneficial to Iran and to further isolate it.

TOKYO, June 12 [2006] -- Despite months of pressure from Washington, Japan has become increasingly reluctant to join a Bush administration plan for sanctions against Iran if negotiations fail to resolve concerns over the country's nuclear program, Japanese and U.S. officials said Monday.

Japanese officials are suggesting that their country, which has more at stake in Iran financially than any other potential sanctions partner, may not join in punitive measures unless there is a broad international consensus along the lines of a U.N. Security Council resolution or other measure backed by nations now reluctant to impose sanctions, such as China. The White House had hoped instead to bring Japan into a "coalition of the willing" that avoided dealing with "recalcitrants" such as Russia and China.

Washington Post

As nations such as Japan back out of Iran oil development, the government in Iran is forced to dig into its reserve funds to get crucial projects off the ground. Iran is hoping to turn to China and Russia for help.

Source

Eventually, Japan yieled to the pressure and currently supports the US - even though it will suffer financial consequences. I've been unable to find out the exact amount, but from the above stated articles I gather that the economic losses for Japan must be huge.

In contrast, China is not going to listen to any demands from Washington and will protects its economy to whatever extend; Iran found another country to replace Japan for investment in its economy.

1/11/2007 3:20 AM ET

BEIJING (AP) — China warned the United States on Thursday not to meddle in its trade relations with Iran after Washington expressed concern about a planned investment by a Chinese oil company in an Iranian gas field.

"We think this kind of cooperation and relationship is legitimate. Normal cooperation should not be interfered (with)," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. Asked whether that meant Beijing believed the United States was interfering in its dealings with Iran, Liu said: "This is our position."

The U.S. government expressed concern last month to Beijing about a planned investment by state-owned Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd. in Iran's Northern Pars gas field. Washington said major business dealings with Tehran were inappropriate at a time when Iran was defying U.N. resolutions over its nuclear program.

The reason why the US is unable to put pressure on China is completely related to the US trade deficit, which enables China to manipulate and make or break the US.

Russia does not seem to be stopable either and continues to deliver arms to Iran. Additionally, it wants to deliver nuclear fuel for the Russian built Iranian Bushehr reactor in March of 2007 (which makes the claim of the ING bank report, which states a US/Israeli attack on Iran is likely to take place before March 2007, even more plausible.

Atomstroyexport head Sergei Shmatko earlier said Moscow could start preparing for fuel deliveries to the Bushehr NPP in January.

"Fuel deliveries to the Bushehr NPP require preparations three months in advance, and we plan to start the preparations in January 2007 to be able to deliver the fuel in March," he said.

Source

Israel warned Russia but does know it is unable to stop Russia from delivering arms to Iran:

Voicing extreme concern over Russia's recent sale of advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, senior diplomatic and defense officials warned Moscow Tuesday that the deal could have serious security implications that would even "get back to Russia."

Senior officials in Jerusalem said they "were not pleased" with the sale of the anti-aircraft missiles, but that Russia was a sovereign country and they could not intervene.

JP

Isn't it remarkable that both Israel and the US are so shocked by the Russian anti-airarms deliveries? They are solely used for defensive purposes, but would be very unwelcome if the US and Israel decided to launch air strikes on iran.

Yeah, the Russian know what they are doing to counter the US/Israëli attack. The chinese almost went into Afghanistan in 2001 to defend their borders because they don't like the US so near them. So I think China may go in Iran and say to the US don't attack Iran, it's our protectorat... If the US attack Iran, China may attack US interest in another way, by dumping massive amounts of US treasury bounds, that would crash the US economy, or maybe taking Taiwan or South Korea...

[edit on 17-1-2007 by Vitchilo]