The Return of Iranian Diplomacy

"Diplomacy emerged victorious," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared on May 17, after his country and Turkey signed its sketchy nuclear deal with Iran. That was something of a reach. But, if not victorious, diplomacy was taking a rare turn on center stage — especially after the U.S. announced, the very next day, that it had completed the far more tricky feat of getting the Russians and Chinese to sign on to a new round of sanctions against Iran. Neither of these deals will prevent Iran from building itself a nuclear weapon, if that's what it desires — indeed, the Turkey-Brazil deal would allow Iran to enrich uranium at much higher levels of purity than currently allowed by international law. But both, as Vice President Biden might say, are big ... deals. They represent significant changes in the international landscape.