Iran,China,and Russia: The Emerging Anti-US Nexus?

1 `Worldwide Threat 2001: National Security in a Changing World', statement by Director of Central Intelligence Agency George J. Tenet before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 7 February 2001; available at http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/ speeches/UNCLASWWT_02072001.html.

2 My analysis here benefits from Farideh Farhi's essay `To Have or Not To Have? Iran's Domestic Debates on Nuclear Option', in Geoffrey Kemp, ed., Iran's Nuclear Weapons Option (Washington, DC: Nixon Center, 2001), pp. 35-53.

3 The analysis of the position of those opposing the nuclear option is mine and may not correctly reflect Farhi's position.

4 Steven Lee Myers, `China Rejects U.S. Actions on Bombing of Embassy', New York Times, 11 April 2000.

5 For comprehensive analyses of this highly intricate subject of the USA's maneuvers with China and Russia in the 1970s, see James Mann, About Face: A History of America's Curious Relations with China (New York: Knopf, 1999), and Patrick Tyler, A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China (New York: Century Foundation, 1999).

6 Roger Cohen, `To European Eyes, It's America The Ugly', New York Times, electronic version, 2 May 2001; published in the Early Bird Brief, 2 May 2001.

7 `Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 January Through 30 June 2000', available at http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/bian/bian_feb_2001.htm.

8 Vladimir Radyuhin, `Russia to Resume Arms Trade with Iran', The Hindu (India), electronic version, 17 January 2000; also published in the Early Bird Brief, 17 January 2000.

9 Ibid.

10 Steven Mufson, `U.S. to Protest China Aid on Iraq's Anti-Aircraft System', Washington Post, electronic version, 21 February 2001; available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59110-2001Feb21.html; also published in the Early Bird Brief, 21 February 2001.

11 For a full-blown Russian description of this and other related issues, see Aleksandr Bovin, `Partnership Without Epithets: Getting Closer to Iran? Yes, But Not in Order To Spite America', Moscow Obshchaya Gazeta (in Russian), electronic version, FBIS, 29 March 2001; also published in the Early Bird Brief, 29 March 2001.