Two can play the game of politics by Ramzy Baroud

When the deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency, Muhammad Saeedi, said recently that his country is willing to allow "snap inspections" by the International Atomic Energy Agency, he conditioned his country's concession on excluding the United Nations Security Council from any involvement in inspecting Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities.

Quite properly, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran was "playing games" with the international community. Indeed, Iran is playing games - in the sense that it is repeatedly testing US resolve to find out how far the Bush administration is willing to go to escalate the conflict.