طهران تحمل المفاتيح اللازمة لخروج واشنطن من العراق

الانديبدنت البريطانية - 3/5/2007

إن واشنطن بحاجة ماسة إلى التعاون الإيراني والسوري إذا أرادت انتزاع نفسها من العراق مع الحفاظ على حفنة من كرامتها

Tehran holds the key to Washington's exit from Iraq

Published:  03 May 2007

There are times, the US must reflect, when isolationism and unilateralism seem infinitely simpler guiding principles for foreign policy than engagement. Iran offers a prime example. The US broke off relations in 1979 when its Tehran embassy came under siege and its diplomats were taken hostage. Since then - that is, over the whole career of many senior US politicians and diplomats - there has been no official communication at all. A flickering of improvement in the late Clinton years was snuffed out as soon as George Bush came to office: his first State of the Union address included Iran in the "axis of evil". Nothing has changed significantly since then.

What is different today is that the US needs better relations with Iran at least as much as, and probably more than, Tehran needs a thaw with Washington . The result is a complex diplomatic dance in which the US shuffles around offering small come-ons to Tehran through intermediaries, while loudly accusing it of heinous crimes, such as supplying money and technology to Islamic militants and trying to develop a nuclear weapon. When Iran equivocates and then rejects the offers, Washington turns round and blames it for being difficult.

Two meetings taking place this week will determine whether either side is quite ready for the diplomacy that is the only way out of this long-standing impasse. At talks in London, representatives of all five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, are discussing what more can be done to persuade Iran to suspend its nuclear programme, and whether that "more" should be primarily stick or carrot. The meeting will hear a report from the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, on his recent talks with Iran 's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani. Mr Solana has said that he is sure Iran wants to talk. The US State Department seems to want to listen, and says there is a reasonable plan on the table. The question is whether anyone else in Washington is interested in listening, too.

The second meeting, which takes place in Egypt tomorrow is no less crucial. The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, will sit with foreign ministers from states neighbouring Iraq to discuss how they might help in restoring the country's security. The meeting is expected to provide an opportunity for the US and Syria to start talking. The hope is that the US and Iran might make a tentative step towards each other, too.

This, however, is more problematical. To say that Iran has played hard to get before the talks is an understatement. Yesterday's announcement by President Ahmadinejad that he would welcome US-Iranian talks on the margins of the conference is still no guarantee that a meeting will happen. And even if there is a meeting, there can be no certainty that Iran will be at all interested in what Washington really wants and needs - which is a pledge from Iraq 's neighbours to become involved, in a positive and non-sectarian way, in Iraq .

And here is the nub of the US problem. Washington desperately needs the co-operation of Syria and Iran if it is to have a chance of extracting itself from Iraq with even a shred of dignity. Yet it refuses to countenance any serious concession on Iran 's nuclear programme. In trying to keep the two issues separate, Washington risks putting itself in the absurd situation of begging Iran to help it out in Iraq , while threatening military force against its nuclear installations. If the US is serious about either issue, it will have to show more flexibility on both. First, though, it will have to accept a link between the two and agree that, in any direct talks with Iran , everything - including diplomatic recognition - will be on the table.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2504616.ece

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نشرنا لهذه المقالات لا يعني أنها تعبر عن وجهة نظر المركز كلياً أو جزئياً

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من حق الزائر الكريم أن ينقل وأن ينشر كل ما يعجبه من موقعنا . معزواً إلينا ، أو غير معزو .ـ