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Russia's help will be crucial for President Barack Obama inaddressing the crisis in Syria and the Iran nuclear standoff, but President Vladimir Putin isplaying hard to get. Since resuming the presidency three weeks agoafter a four-year, constitutionally mandated sabbatical in the roleof Prime Minister, Putin pointedly snubbed the G-8 summit hosted byObama at Camp David, instead sending Prime Minister DmitriMedvedev. Obama and Putin have finally agreed on a date and venuefor a t te- -t te, even if the timing is a little fraught: theyplan to huddle on the sidelines of G-20 meeting in the Mexican cityof Los Cabos from June 18 to 19. Curiously enough, the same dateshave been chosen for the next round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 (the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China), whichwill be held in Moscow. There will be considerable pressure for the Moscow meetings togenerate an agreement that will keep the diplomatic process going a tall order given the gulf between Iran and its interlocutorsrevealed in last week's talks in Baghdad. The Iranians were shocked by the P5+1 offering noprospect of relief from sanctions targeting Iran's oil andbanking sector, even if it agreed to the confidence-building stepsproposed by the world powers. (They asked Iran to halt uraniumenrichment to 20% purity, ship out its stockpile of such materialand cease operations at its Fordow enrichment plant buried deep ina mountainside near Qom.) Those steps would buy only minorconcessions from Western powers, which made it clear that the onlyway to stop the unprecedented European oil embargo and measuresagainst Iran's banks was to heed U.N. Security Councildemands that it freeze all uranium enrichment. ( MORE: Political Pressure Mounts Ahead of Iran Nuclear Talks ) The new sanctions take effect on July 1, just two weeks after theMoscow talks, and if they are demonstrably implemented, it maybecome more difficult politically for Iran's leaders tostay at the table. (Any inclination toward defiance will bereinforced by a belief in Tehran that Western leaders, given theireconomic crisis, need the diplomacy as much, if not more, than Irandoes.) Iran remains steadfast in refusing the demand that it haltall enrichment and refuses to engage in any process designed toreach that end point. As a result, Iranian officials warned thatthey were being offered no incentive to take confidence-buildingsteps on issues like 20% enrichment. Obama's election-season concerns work against the idea ofconcessions to Iran, and Israel is pushing him to take an even tougher line . Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday branded anythingless than a complete halt to all enrichment in Iran an unacceptableoutcome. And, of course, the minimum being demanded by the Israelisfar exceeds the maximum Iran would likely concede. Israel'sDeputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon told an Israel radio stationthat the talks were simply giving Iran more time: "To myregret, I don't see any sense of urgency," Yaalon wasquoted as saying, "and perhaps it is even in the interest ofsome players in the West to stretch out the time, which wouldcertainly square with the Iranian interest." ( MORE: Long-Term Uncertainty Remains in Nuclear Talks with Iran ) Yaalon may not be wrong: while the Israelis tap their watches, mostWestern leaders don't share their minutes-to-midnightassessment and oppose military action at a point where Iran isaccumulating the means to build nuclear weapons, but hasn'tyet taken a decision to build them. Still, the Israeli pressuretends to reverberate on Capitol Hill, restraining Obama'spolitical room for maneuver on the Iran issue. The Presidentcertainly wants to avoid being steamrollered into anyconfrontation. If he's to show progress on his own strategyfor dealing with Iran, he'll need Putin's help. Iran is at the negotiating table partly because its presumptiveallies, Russia and China, demand that it take steps to demonstratethe peaceful intent of its nuclear program. The current negotiatingframework which proposes step-by-step reciprocal moves to easethe standoff was originally devised by the Russians. Hope ofpersuading Iran to take measures to ease the danger ofconfrontation has always rested more on the position ofIran's friends and most important trading partners, than onthe tough line taken by Western governments that Tehran ishardwired to defy. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lastweek insisted that Iranian steps toward meeting internationalconcerns should be greeted with an easing of sanctions. The abilityof the P5+1 to launch a process of reciprocal steps with Iran maydepend in no small part on Russia's ability to fashioncompromises that heed the political concerns from both sides of thetable. ( PHOTOS: Vladimir Putin Sworn In as Russia s President ) But Russia's interventions on Iran just as its stanceon Syria will be driven by its own interests andPutin's reading of them. Putin is looking to reassert Russianinfluence, particularly in the Middle East, and that means curbingWashington's ability to resolve a crisis like Syria. ThoughRussia has lately been critical of the Assad regime, it is alwayscareful to apportion equal blame for Syrian violence on the armedopposition and those supplying their weapons. It appears unlikelyto lend its weight to any regime-change effort or to allow legalauthorization for military action via the U.N. Russia's cooperation on Syria and Iran is likely to be based,first and foremost, on securing its own interests in how thosecrises are resolved. But cooperation on solving problems that aremore pressing for Washington than for Moscow may also see Putindemand a quid pro quo on Russian concerns closer to home. PresidentGeorge W. Bush, on first meeting Putin in 2001, claimed to havelooked the Russian in the eye and gotten "a sense of hissoul," proclaiming him a "trustworthy man." Obamais more likely to discover in Los Cabos that his Russiancounterpart is not exactly a cheap date. MORE: The Menu of Options in the Iranian Nuclear Talks. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Stainless Steel Pepper Mill , Hot Dog Maker Machine for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Stainless Steel Hand Blender.
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