In the coming weeks, the United Nations will likely receive a draft outlining sanctions against Iran. Whether this document will call for limited sanctions or strong ones—targeting Iran’s oil and gas sectors—remains to be seen. But Russia, which enjoys healthy trade ties with Iran, hinted recently that it has no intention of sanctioning Tehran or threatening the use of force. On a recent visit to Moscow, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pressed Russia to relent on the issue of Iran, President Vladimir Putin gave him no reassurances (al-Jazeera).

Russia has extensive energy and economic ties with Iran. Both Russia and China have shied away from sanctions and reiterate that diplomacy remains their preferred approach.

The UN Security Council quickly slapped sanctions against North Korea after its brazen nuclear test. Though limited in scope and weak in enforcement, experts say the sanctions were partially intended to send Tehran a message. Some say the window for direct negotiations may have passed. Christopher de Bellaigue, writing in the New York Review of Books, says the Iranians offered an overture to the Americans in early 2003 and were prepared to make concessions. “Nowadays, it is hard to imagine the Iranian government repeating this sort of offer,” he writes. R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, views the Iranian situation differently. “Their isolation is actually quite extraordinary,” he said at a recent CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) meeting, calling Iran the second most isolated country after North Korea. “A year ago today, they seemed to be holding most of the cards. They had walked out on the Europeans and there was no consequence to that action. But since then, we have built this international coalition.” Yet some analysts say U.S. posturing only hardens Iran’s nationalists. “Iran is not Nazi Germany, an ideological regime with a limitless appetite,” CFR Senior Fellow Ray Takeyh told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month. “The Islamic Republic is seeking to emulate China and India, regional powers whose interests and claims have to be taken into consideration in their immediate neighborhood.” (Source: Council on Foreign Relations)