The United States media often - and for good reason - portrays China and Russia as reluctant to implement sanctions on Iran. Rarely (too rarely), however, does it attempt to view the issue through a Chinese or Russian lens. Americans nearly never try to understand the complex motivations behind Chinese and Russian lukewarmness.
I will attempt to do that now. How do China and Russia think of Iran?
Probably in the same way we thought of Honduras. The lukewarm American opposition to the coup strikingly paralleled China and Russia's stances on Iran.
Arguably the most significant news so far--aside from the fact of the coup itself, and the fact that President is still alive, is the news that the OAS has condemned the coup. Her diary about this puts it in proper historical context, contrasting it with the strikingly similar coup in Haiti in 2004:
UPDATE 6:54PM OAS HAS JUST CONDEMNED COUP IN HONDURAS, CALLS FOR ZELAYA'S REINSTATEMENT In a major blow to the coup leaders in Honduras who just illegally installed themselves in power, the Organization of American States (OAS) has just issued a resolution condemning the coup against President Zelaya, demanding the return of Zelaya to power immediately and clarifying that the OAS will not recognize any other government other than Zelaya's in Honduras. Whew! For a minute there I thought this was going to turn out like Haiti in 2004 when coup forces kidnapped President Aristide and forced him into exile and, while the OAS "condemned" the constitutional rupture, they never called for Aristide's reinstatement, and since the US backed the coup, an illegal transitional government was installed and nothing more came of it from the international community.
This time, things seem different. Still waiting on the US Government's official position...If they say they will not recognize the coup government, then we have to see how things will play out in Honduras.
Other posts from her throughout the day make it clear that the Obama Administration has been typically vague, and still has not made its position clear. In her most recent post, she said:
Since the Obama Administration has stated the coup situation in Honduras should be resolved via the OAS, and the OAS has just condemned the coup and called for the unconditional restoration of President Zelaya to power, that should also imply that the US Government shares the same position.
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