July 5: "G8 Leaders Set Deadline for Iran Response" (NYT).

This from the end of the piece strikes me as kind of comical, given that no one could argue that the US hasn't been "deeply involved" in the Iraqi political process:

No sooner was that compromise reached and Ms. Rice and [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov were at it again, this time over Mr. Lavrov's proposal that the statement include something about the need for the international community to be more involved in the Iraqi political process. Ms. Rice immediately took exception to that.

"To say the international community is to be more involved in the political process seems to me rather odd, given that they have a democratic elective process," she said.

"I did not suggest this," Mr. Lavrov replied. "What I did say was not involvement in the political process but the involvement of the international community in support of the political process."

"What does that mean?" Ms. Rice said.

There was a long pause. Then, from Mr. Lavrov: "I think you understand."

Ms. Rice: "No, I don't."

More from the Post on the squabbling, which includes Lavrov's reference to Weldon/Hoekstra/Santorum's recent claims about WMD in Iraq:

The two continued to squabble when Lavrov threw out a new concept -- that the new Iraqi government had to answer questions about former president Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction because last week Republican lawmakers in the United States had said there was evidence of chemical munitions.

"I think it's serious," he said. "While we want to support this government, we also believe that this government has something to do to finalize the leftovers of the past, which is basically nonproliferation concerns."

This line of conversation riled Rice, but once again other ministers suggested a compromise that mentioned the idea without endorsing it.

The Russian government anyhow seems to be taking Hoekstra/Santorum/Weldon's Iraq WMD concerns seriously. The Bush administration, not so much. What's wrong with this picture?

(more on the latter, from a House Armed Services committee hearing yesterday):

At the Armed Services Committee, [DIA director] Maples also asserted that the rockets and artillery rounds that had been found were produced in the 1980s and could not be used as intended. [...]

But despite statements of concern by Republicans about the risk of terrorists releasing the chemical in the United States, defense officials said the munitions pose as much a threat to people who try to handle them as potential victims. [...]

Republican lawmakers, some facing tough election battles amid growing anti-war sentiment, called the discovery of the weapons significant.

Republican Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania suggested the munitions were in fact the weapons of mass destruction that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein lied about, leading the United States to war.

"For those who claim that these weapons are not the weapons of mass destruction that the United States went to war over, I would refer them to 17 United Nations Security Council resolutions that Saddam Hussein violated," Weldon said. "It didn't say pre-'91 chemical weapons. It didn't say post-'91 chemical weapons. It said chemical weapons."

Posted by Laura at June 29, 2006 06:18 PM