Samuel Segev: Cold War Returns to Mideast

Samuel Segev is the Winnipeg Free Press Middle East correspondent.

There are growing signs of a renewed Cold War between Russia and the United States over the future paths of Iran and Syria in the Middle East.

For years, Iran has been pursuing both a nuclear program and the development of long-range missiles while building a heavy-water reactor for "research purposes" that is also capable of producing fuel for a plutonium bomb.

Iran's Islamic rulers have spent millions to illegally purchase enrichment technology and nuclear-weapon designs through Pakistani nuclear scientist and black marketeer A. Q. Khan.

For years Iran tried to conceal these contacts until its cover was blown by Libya when it began co-operating with the West...