Nuclear treaty row could harm US foreign policy: analysts: "Uncertainty over ratifying a landmark nuclear treaty not only throws into doubt the "reset" in US-Russia ties but also broader US policies on Iran, Afghanistan and arms control, analysts say.
James Collins, a former US ambassador to Russia who now heads the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Russia and Eurasia program, said it's too early to predict what will happen to the treaty.
"But I do think that there's no question that a failure to ratify START in the (current) lame-duck session is going to be seen as a setback for US-Russia relations," Collins said.
In Moscow, it will strengthen "the hands of those who have questioned the reset from the beginning, those who are probably critical of what the Russian government has been doing with us on Iran, on Afghanistan and so forth," he said.
"It will just be harder to have the trust that seems to have been building between the Americans and the Russians that has made it much easier to get common ground on some of these other issues," he said.
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