Yglesias is absolutely right about this. The Iran NIE may stand as the Bush Administration’s–unwitting, unwilling, kicking and screaming–foreign policy “triumph” of the year…and an advance indication of how the world might respond to a new, more reasonable Administration.
But the fact that the UN is still moving ahead with a new sanctions regime is also an indication of how seriously the Security Council–with the possible exception of China–takes Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Let’s not forget that.