By Andrew L. Jaffee

Despite Iran’s continual veiled and bellicose threats — implying that it will use nuclear weapons once developed — China and Russia will most likely torpedo any UN resolutions aimed at putting a stop to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program. From today’s BBC:

Russia and China have criticised a UN Security Council draft resolution on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Russia says the draft needs rewriting with stronger emphasis put on building confidence between Iran and the UN.

China says it is worried that the draft’s Western sponsors have based it on UN rules that could open the way for the use of military force against Iran.

The draft demands that Iran stop nuclear enrichment and threatens further measures if it does not do so.

Russia, China, and Iran allies? Evil makes for strange bedfellows. And money overrules all history and professed dogma.

What could China and Iran possibly have in common — besides being ruled by tyrants? China’s leaders claim to be communists, who professedly despise religion (the “opium of the people”). Iran’s rulers assert that religion and God are important above all. China wants Iran’s oil, despite the fact that any future Iranian missiles will be pointed at the Peoples’ Republic.

Russia, another “Great Satan,” who fought Afghanistan’s Islamists for almost a decade and is currently fighting Chechnya’s Islamists, is now helping the Islamist republic of Iran lay the foundation for a nuclear weapons program. Putin, or one of his fellow KGB goons, has got to know that Iran’s nukes will eventually point towards Moscow. Having the money now must be more soothing than confronting the threat later. Such are the twists and turns when navigating (or in this case, drowning) in Middle East politics.