IRAN'S MOLST USEFUL IDIOT?

Barack Obama may genuinely believe, as he promised in last week's acceptance speech, that he can prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

First, though, he'll have to overcome his running-mate's resistance. The Honorary Ayatollah Joe Biden.

Israel's Army Radio just reported that Sen. Joe Biden told Israeli leaders in 2005 that they would have to accept a nuclear Iran.

The report says Biden told the Israelis that he doubted economic sanctions would be effective against Tehran, "and I am against opening an additional military and diplomatic front."

Biden's camp yesterday termed the report "a lie."

But despite Biden's recent remarks that "Iran's acquisition of a nuclear weapon would dramatically destabilize an already unstable region," the fact remains that the senator has long shown antipathy for getting tough with Tehran.

Indeed, according to a devastating profile in The New Republic in 2001, Biden suggested, in the wake of 9/11, that "this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran." (Which this so-called foreign affairs expert termed as "Arab"!)

He even voted against a resolution designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization and calling for tough sanctions against it - one of only 22 senators to do so.

Biden has been pushing for "engagement" with Tehran - as opposed to sanctions - for more than a decade.

Yet, as a Teheran spokesman recently confessed, "During our negotiations, and so long as we were not subjected to sanctions, we could import technology."

And Biden opposes sanctions.