The theater of the absurd that is the foreign policy debate over Middle Eastern nuclear… The theater of the absurd that is the foreign policy debate over Middle Eastern nuclear proliferation has seen some odd plot twists in recent days. The latest is that Russia is suddenly sounding like the voice of reason, a sure sign that the bottom of the barrel is near.

As Iran continues its quest for enriched uranium — an endeavor it claims is solely in pursuit of nuclear power for peaceful purposes — Russia has responded by proposing a compromise that, for all intents and purposes, ought to have been perfectly appealing to the beleaguered Islamic Republic. Moscow offered to enrich uranium for Iran on Russian soil and provide them with nuclear reactors. That way the West doesn’t have to worry about nuclear proliferation and Iran gets all the electricity it wants. Everybody’s happy, right?

Iran’s reaction has reportedly been one of mixed signals, much to the chagrin of senior Russian officials. There seems to have been a bit of confusion regarding whether or not Tehran was still considering the Russian deal. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi ultimately said Sunday that “the Russian proposal is not on the agenda.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was less than pleased Monday, telling the RIA news agency, “Iran is absolutely no help to those who want to find peaceful ways to solve this problem.”

Let’s be honest here: Iran doesn’t want nuclear weapons the way your girlfriend doesn’t want anything on Valentine’s Day. It just sounds like the right thing to say.

On the one hand, it is understandable that Iran might not want its nuclear programs to be entirely dependent on another nation, especially when the technology would be courtesy of the people who brought you Chernobyl. Especially when you consider that the list of nations who have and maintain their own nuclear programs includes such humanitarian gems as our friends Pakistan and Israel.

Nevertheless, Iran isn’t entitled to its outrage over the world’s collective paranoia at the prospect they’re arming themselves with weapons of mass destruction. It’s really hard not to look like your theocracy has an extremist, whacko agenda when there’s a lot of talk about destroying nearby nations coming out of your political rhetoric and overt hatred of the Western world seems to be a running theme in your foreign policy.

Talk like that, to say nothing of rampant alleged human rights abuses and potentially shady ties to terrorism, tend to make, well, the entire Western world nervous about your country’s nuclear ambitions.

Russia and China, to date, have not been ready to ask that Iran totally abandon its ambitions toward access to enriched uranium, as the rest of the United Nations Security Council — United States, France and England — has. Iran isn’t doing itself any favors by toying with the Russians, who represent one of a dwindling number of parties interested in a compromise. Ultimately, this move is only going to further strengthen the argument for a hard-line approach to keeping Iran in line as the situation continues to look uglier for everyone involved.