The six powers involved are the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

The Western powers gave Iran two weeks from July 19 to respond to their offer to hold off more U.N. sanctions on Iran if Tehran freezes expansion of its nuclear program.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said during a two-day visit to the United States last week that his country does not rule out the possibility of delivering a military strike against Iran.

After discussing the Iranian problem in the State Department and the U.S. Department of Defense, Barak said tough sanctions should be used to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons but added that no options should be excluded.

Following his visit to Jerusalem, U.S. Democratic presidential standard-bearer Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois told a Democratic caucus last week, "Nobody said this to me directly, but I get the feeling from my talks that if the sanctions don't work, Israel is going to strike Iran."

The timing of Obama's remarks is alarming, especially since they come after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there could be no "artificial deadlines" or "drawing out" of the process in the search for a compromise between the six nations and Iran.

Lavrov was apparently referring to the two weeks given to Iran by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reconsider its decision.

Speaking on July 28 after the meeting between European Union High Commissioner for Foreign and Defense Policy Javier Solana and Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva on July 26, Rice dismissed the Islamic Republic's response to a proposed solution on Tehran's nuclear program as "small talk" meant to buy time.

"It's time for the Iranians to give a serious answer," Rice said. "They can't go and stall and make small talk about culture, they have to make a decision. ... We will see what Iran does in two weeks."

The deadline was therefore last Saturday -- Aug. 2.

Rice apparently exceeded her authority when making a statement none of the six nations -- including the United States -- has empowered her to make.

Therefore the story of Iran's nuclear dossier and the U.N. Security Council's binding resolutions has become a boring soap opera.

Over the past two years the Security Council has adopted four resolutions on the Iranian nuclear issue, three of them with sanctions.

(In Part 2: Israel seeks new BMD defenses against Iran's Shahab-3 IRBMs.)

(Pyotr Goncharov is a political commentator for RIA Novosti. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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