The United States has insisted it is serious about working through the United Nations to put meaningful pressure on Iran to give up its quest for a nuclear weapons capability. But the watered-down and anaemic statement issued recently by the UN Security Council (itself a product of three weeks of intensive negotiations) does not bode well for success. It is a useful first step but clearly far short of what the Bush administration wanted.

Yet, as Brent Scowcroft, the former US national security adviser, observed recently: “To deter Iran, it is essential that there be a united front between the US, the European Union, Russia and China to prevent Iran from exploiting any differences or finding any sort of wiggle room that would allow it to continue with its programme.”