Yahoo! News - Russia to Deliver Nuclear Fuel to Iran
BUSHEHR, Iran - Russia and Iran signed a deal Sunday that would deliver nuclear fuel to the Middle East country for the startup of its first reactor — a project the United States had for years pushed Moscow to drop, claiming Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh and Russian Atomic Energy Agency chief Alexander Rumyantsev signed the agreement at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The signing, which was delayed by a day, came after the two senior officials toured the $800 million complex.

The signing came a few days after a summit between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovakia, which touched on American concerns over Russian support for Iran's nuclear program.

Washington accuses Tehran of covertly trying to build a nuclear bomb, which Iran denies. Putin has said he is sure Iran's intentions are merely to generate energy, not create weapons, and that Russian cooperation with Tehran would continue.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Thursday's Bush-Putin summit had delayed the signing, which had been expected Saturday, but Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said "the Bush-Putin talks did not have an effect on the agreement. Our talks (with the Russians) have been successful."

Was this a big "F-You" to Bush? There is an interesting alignment going on here, one that might keep our...um..."aspirations" in check. If Russia (and to some extent, China, by virtue of their big oil contracts) is aligning with the Iranians, who are aligning with the Syrians, doesn't this set up a stalemate of sorts as far as further military action in the region goes?

I guess my question is: Would the Russians come to either Iran's (or Syria's) aid should the US (or Israel) decide to act? Is anyone but me starting to think that the Cold War was actually a good thing that perserved balance in the world?