China has sensibly ruled out any possibility of pursuing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran. Favoring diplomacy over war, something very uncommon these days, Zhang Yesui, a Chinese envoy to the UN said, "The efforts aimed at diplomatic negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue still need some time and patience." This all comes after the US rejected a deal with Iran which would give Iran higher-enriched uranium to be used at an IAEA-inspected, US-built reactor in exchange for Iran's 2 tons of low enriched uranium. As a result, Iran will enrich uranium to the crucial 20% benchmark which allows for an "extremely crude nuclear weapon."

Rather than pursuing peaceful diplomatic talks that would end up making Iran's nuclear program more visible, the US preferred to go the W. Bush route of isolation and punishment. For now, because of China's veto power, new sanctions will be put off. Maybe when we're not depriving Iranians of the bare necessities, we will rethink our policy. That would be change we can believe in.