In the first place, and hard as it may be to believe if you watch CNN, not everyone cares about the Middle East. Why should they?

Secondly even governments that dislike American policy there and elsewhere have reason to be concerned about the direction Iran appears to be taking in its foreign policy generally. But most important by far is that no one outside Iran really thinks an Iranian nuclear weapons program can lead to anything good, and no one believes Iranian assurances that Tehran is only seeking nuclear energy for civilian uses.

The Security Council vote does not mean that Council members are prepared to take real substantive steps to prevent Iran from moving its nuclear program forward. It is, though, a timely reminder that not every action by foreign governments represents a referendum on the United States or its foreign policy.

Maybe, you should listen to Iran's statement at the Security Council before you go condemning them.

And Zathras, you might want to notice that Qatar's explicit and stated reason for voting against the resolution was that it was against the "eruption of another volcano in the region." So, though I know you are vague when you say "even governments that dislike American policy there and elsewhere have reason to be concerned", it might interest you that the country that is in the region did not want any more trouble.

Other countries voted for the resolution, not because they agreed with it, but because the USA is really powerful and it is more problematic for a country to go against the USA then to go against a weak country like Iran.

you can see the video of Iran's response here if go to this site:
http://www.cspan.org/videoarchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100
click on the link to :
U.N. Security Council Meeting
The U.N. Security Council holds a meeting discussing the Middle East conflict.
7/31/2006: NEW YORK, NY: 1 hr. 15 min.

(it is the 7th one down, don't be fooled, there is another security
council meeting above it)
and go 46:30 into the video.

Not sure why you'd be amazed by this. Resolution was watered down and main players have staked out relative positions - so backtracking at this point would serve what purpose? I imagine what you're trying to intimate is that anti-American invective over mideast by some is merely rhetorical, tactical and not 'sincere'. No doubt this is true - but also par for course and to be expected.

They give a deadline of August 31 but I'm worried about August 22. This is meaningless chatter.

Five seconds and a Google Image search will tell you why, Zathras... Tiny little Qatar, located right at one of the Persian Gulf choke points, guaranteed to get Doha and the ports on which its livelihood depends pounded flat any time Iran decides to do so...

A conspiracy theory view (which I don't believe in, but I'm just tossing it out there) is that Iran is encouraging unrest to keep oil prices high to build up cash reserves in anticipation of possible future sanctions. So a little Hezbollah/Israel war is sort of the same as investing in a hedge fund for Iran.

Perhaps the US and Europe don't want the situation in Lebanon to give Iran the impression that the Western powers can be easily distracted. But I would second what Zathras says. The 14-1 vote is a non-binding resolution and not a real threat to impose sanctions.

RWB - Iran imports 40% of its gasoline. Iran subsidizes its gasoline @ $0.35/gal. Iran is moving to a peacetime rationing system because it had $0 allocated to import gasoline in 2H 2006. This means that September 2006 there will be shortages and a great amount of discontent. Where's the money?

It's a combination of down the drain, in mullah's pockets, and in the pockets of the CCP and Putin's crew in St. Petersberg. Both could use the cash and no doubt they whored themselves dear.

Iran is courting internal revolution if it imposes that rationing system when its peacetime.

Iran needs a war. Iran will have its war.

Wow, the security council has agreed to a deadline to consider threatening sanctions. That ought to work about as well as UN resolution 1559 which called on Lebanon to disarm Lebanese and foreign guerillas, and to expand Lebanese authority to all its territories.

So What? Iran is laughing behind closed doors. Stop making enriched uranium or what...?! You'll take away our birthday? Sanctions don't mean a thing, thanks to Russia and Syria etc at the back door. I agree with Newt and all this talk about sanctions etc. is meaningless. Wake up people!

I will just add one more thing. And this is in respect to Zathras' first comment on this thread:

"In the first place, and hard as it may be to believe if you watch CNN, not everyone cares about the Middle East. Why should they?"

Actually, I agree with you on this. I don't think the average American should care, just as they don't care about any African or Asian war. Americans have pretty well proven not to care about anything, especially the suffering of poor people or the oppression of the weak. But, the amount of press coverage on this war is specifically because it is Israel. Israel has a (to say the least) privileged position in American diplomatic and media society. Israel is an unimportant country on a emotional piece of land. It, generally, has almost no relevance to the USA. Lately it has a lot more relevance because the USA has because an arm of Israeli foreign policy, but overall, for the people of the USA, there is no reason to give a damn.

I will just say though, the Jewish people have done an amazing job of placing themselves within the halls of power. I have to hand it to them, maybe they are smarter then the rest of us. My guess is that if Israel bombed a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize winners tomorrow, the American congress would declare 410-8 that Israel was defending itself from terrorism, while CNN and the rest of the media might be so bold as to report that the famlies of the dead said it was a "disproportionate" use of force.

See this recent piece on Iran:

http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/ahmadinejads-world

" will just say though, the Jewish people have done an amazing job of placing themselves within the halls of power. I have to hand it to them, maybe they are smarter then the rest of us. "

Res ipso loquitur