U. S. diplomacy dodged two bullets in the run-up to Wednesday’s Iran sanctions vote in the Security Council. The first was that the fallout from the Gaza flotilla would either continue to delay bringing the sanctions measure before the Council, or that there might be an effort to more explicitly link Iran’s transgressions with Israel’s actions. The second was that the recently announced agreement between Iran, Brazil and Turkey would give Russia and China the excuse to declare that diplomatic efforts were indeed working and that passing a sanctions measure at this juncture would be counterproductive. None of these things happened, and not only did the measure pass through with no vetoes wielded by Russia or China, both Moscow and Beijing voted for the measure. It would have had far less significance if both had merely abstained.
The resolution passed; now comes the hard work of getting countries to translate its principles into concrete action. And one of those challenges is getting the rising powers of the south and east on board
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