There’s little doubt that the Qom facility is just part of a vast network of secret nuclear facilities that the Iranians have been building for years to evade inspectors. It solves the “puzzle” of why the Iranians haven’t been able to account for large amounts of uranium from one of their mines. Imagine a conversation with Iranian nuclear officials offer the missing uranium: “Oh, well, we use it as part of a traditional Persian headache remedy.” While international inspectors sought full access to Iran’s Potemkin nuclear program, the Iranians, having learned the lesson of Iraq’s Osirak facility, destroyed by an Israeli air attack in 1981, have created a hardened weapons program that will be difficult if not impossible to destroy.

So while the Iranians will hand over low-enriched nuclear fuel they’ve said they have, they’re not about to give up the nuclear they haven’t said they have. Get it? As for the further talks, the United States wants to talk about ending Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranians want to talk about… virtually everything else, ranging from “creating a world filled with spirituality, friendship, prosperity, wellness, and security” to “the management and fair use of space” to, yes, abolishing all the world’s nuclear weapons. Suffice it to say, this is a fairly broad agenda. Indeed, it is so broad that one wonders if the Iranians are taking this process as seriously as we’d like to think…

While the Iranians have conceded virtually nothing of value, President Obama has conceded a fair bit, particularly to the Russians. If the Russians were serious about aiding the United States in its efforts to contain Iran’s nuclear efforts, they could pledge not to sell Iran the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. The S-300 is capable of destroying all but the most advanced American military aircraft, and it is one of the main reasons the Pentagon has invested billions in the Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22.