After substantial pressure and arm-twisting the Bush administration managed to obtain a resolution at the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) Agency last week branding accusing Iran of as in non-compliance with its NPT obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The fact that Russia and China abstained, as well as did many members of the non-aligned group of countries, communityabstainedand that the resolution had no specific trigger date for a referral to the United Nations Security Council, dilutes its impact.

However, beyond such procedural issues, the question remains: will such démarches have an impact on Iran? ’s deliberations? Many in the US Washington and the European capitals seem to think perceive that a mere invocation of threats and tentative IAEA resolutions will cause Iran to capitulate and once more suspend its nuclear programme. This is a gross misreading of Iran’s newly inaugurated government. The election of the hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline president, has ushered in a new international orientation that is determined not just to assert Iran’s ­prerogatives, but is largely indifferent to western rebuke.