No haggling here

By Jennifer J. Foster

We have our answer from the Russians on President Obama’s help-with-Iran-and-we’ll-ditch-the-missile-shield idea.

In short, they said, “Um, no.“

From German radio broadcaster Deutsche Welle:

Russian President Medvedev has said he’s willing to discuss the proposed US missile shield with Washington. But he added that any deal linking those talks with negotiations regarding Iran would not be productive.

Russian President Dimitry Medvedev’s comments came in response to a New York Times report that US President Barack Obama had written a secret letter to his Russian counterpart offering to halt the planned missile shield, which would be located mainly in Poland and the Czech Republic, in return for Moscow’s help in stopping Iran from developing long-range nuclear weapons.

The Russian president welcomed the “positive signals” coming from the Obama administration with which he said he hoped to reach “agreements.“ “Haggling,“ however, was “not productive,“ added Medvedev on Tuesday, March 3.

Well, that’s OK. Maybe we can ask the Castro brothers and/or that Chavez guy for help with Iran.