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Iran Puts US Iraq Talks on Hold    [

    GOP Heavy Hitters Pressuring White House to Talk With Iran
    By Laura Rozen
    The Los Angeles Times

    Saturday 27 May 2006

    Washington - Amid concern that the US is drifting toward eventual confrontation with Iran, a growing number of influential statesmen, Republican senators and foreign policy experts are stepping up pressure on the Bush administration to consider doing what no US administration has done in 27 years: talk directly with Iran.

    In recent congressional hearings, think-tank conferences, op-ed essays and media appearances, Republican heavyweights - including former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) - have publicly urged the administration to leave the current path of escalation and join European allies in direct talks with Tehran.

    The public campaign parallels private efforts by GOP insiders, foreign policy specialists and US allies abroad to influence the thinking of key administration officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Elliott Abrams, who oversees Iran policy at the National Security Council. Both have met recently with foreign diplomats and outside experts and have discussed US diplomacy with Iran.

    "I think the administration is gradually and with some reluctance moving in the right direction," said a central figure in the Republican foreign policy establishment who is trying to shift the administration's stance.

    "But I don't think they are taking initiatives now. I think they are being dragged."

    The administration's stance toward Iran, refusing direct talks while allowing other nations to negotiate, has paid few dividends and could add to the unpopularity of future sanctions or military action, the foreign policy expert said.

    But the administration may be forced to change as a result of "pressure from Europeans, from the Russians, and the general sense that they are just on a wicket they can't sustain there," the expert said.

    As pressure on the White House intensified in the last week, there were signs of slight but significant shifts in the administration position.

    Press Secretary Tony Snow repeated the administration's refusal to consider direct talks but said things could change if Iran suspended its uranium enrichment efforts and committed to halting them permanently.

    "When that happens, all right, then there may be some opportunities," Snow said.

    On May 8, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a 17-page letter asking Bush for direct talks.

    In Snow's comments last week, analysts said they detected the outlines of a US counterproposal about conditions for possible talks.

    A decision to talk to the Iranians would be a dramatic departure from the administration's strategy of isolating the Tehran regime. Critics of engagement, including Vice President Dick Cheney and influential neoconservatives, say such talks would legitimize a duplicitous regime and represent a blow to Iranian human rights activists and dissidents.

    The Bush administration has sought to support anti-regime efforts.

    Such hawkish voices have dominated in the administration and Congress, but a perceptible recent shift seems to favor Republican foreign policy "realists" and moderates.

    Pressure for talks involving the United States began to build after the collapse of a Russian-sponsored compromise on Iranian nuclear enrichment this year and after disagreement in the last month within the UN Security Council on the best approach.

    "Some of the E.U. members were nervous that things were really going downhill very fast and headed to military confrontation," said one nongovernmental energy consultant knowledgeable about the internal debate. "When [the Russia proposal] failed, all bets were off. And that prompted thinking that there has got to be another way."

    Visiting German officials urged the administration to hold direct talks in April, and Rice has met with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who favors greater US involvement.

    Lugar held two days of testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this month featuring speaker after speaker who proposed some form of dialogue.

    "The witnesses generally shared the view that no diplomatic options, including direct talks, should be taken off the table," Lugar said. "Direct talks may in some circumstances be useful to demonstrating to our allies our commitment to diplomacy [and] reducing the risk of accidental escalation."

    Kissinger and Hagel have called for talks.

    Proponents of such talks point out that even in the case of North Korea - which, like Iran, Bush considers a rogue state - US officials have taken a place at the bargaining table with representatives of other nations, in some cases speaking to their adversaries in person.

    "There are lots of things we can talk about," said retired Air Force Gen. Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security advisor to former President George H.W. Bush and was a mentor to Rice. "We don't even have to talk directly. We could set up a system like we have with North Korea and talk to them on the fringes, in the hallways. There are lots of ways to do it, and I think we are gradually getting there."

    Iranian dissidents are pushing for the toughest conditions if the US eventually holds talks with Tehran's fundamentalist regime.

    "I think the US should have a very clear and transparent stance that it will not negotiate with Iran unless Iran should fulfill some prerequisites or preconditions," said dissident Mohsen Sazegara, who lives in Connecticut. "These conditions can be freedom of speech in Iran ... free elections, free labor syndicates and some other conditions."

    Analysts expect US officials to ease into talks with Iran, beginning not with bilateral negotiations, but a variation of the six-nation talks underway with North Korea. Other analysts suggested such talks would be preceded by negotiations conducted through a third party on terms of possible talks and would begin very quietly.

    "If we were going to engage Iran, we would do this very quietly," said Mike Buttry, an aide to Hagel, who supports talks with Tehran. "We would not write a press release and say, 'We've engaged Iran.'"

 

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    Iran Puts US Iraq Talks on Hold
    BBC News

    Friday 26 May 2006

    Iran's foreign minister has said Tehran has rejected for now a US offer for direct talks on Iraq.

    On a visit to Iraq, Manouchehr Mottaki said the US tried to exploit the issue for propaganda and create a negative atmosphere by raising other issues.

    Mr Mottaki also warned the US that Iran would retaliate if attacked.

    Washington and Tehran have clashed recently over accusations that Iran's nuclear power programme is a cover for making weapons.

    But in what correspondents say is a sign of better relations between Iraq and Iran, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Tehran had the right to develop a peaceful nuclear programme.

    In March, the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, floated the proposal of direct Iranian-US contacts to discuss mutual security concerns in Iraq.

    Iran originally responded positively, but both sides have now backed off.

    Washington and Tehran severed relations after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

    "Negative Atmosphere"

    The US government first suggested talks with Iran about the security situation in Iraq last year because of concerns Iran was funnelling assistance to some of the groups involved in the violence here.

    President Bush then authorised Mr Khalilzad to hold such discussions but focused on Iraq and not covering Iran's nuclear programme.

    Earlier this year Tehran accepted the idea, but Mr Mottaki said his government had been unhappy at the subsequent US reaction.

    "The American side tried to use this decision as propaganda, and they raised some other issues, they tried to create a negative atmosphere, and that is why the decision which was taken is for the time being suspended," he said.

    He also said the continued presence of American and other foreign troops in Iraq had a negative effect on Iran's security, but said it was up to the Iraqi government to decide if, and for how long, they stayed.

    The threat of a confrontation was minimal, he said, but warned the US not to use military force against Iran.

    "In the event that America launches a strike from any place, Iran will retaliate by targeting that place," he said.

    The US has not ruled out using force against Iran if other methods fail to resolve the stand-off over Iran's nuclear programme.

    Iran insists the programme is for peaceful proposes only, but Western nations are concerned it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability.

    "Right to Knowledge"

    Mr Zebari said the two foreign ministers had discussed concerns about Iranian interference in Iraq but said he welcomed the support Tehran was offering to the new Iraqi government here.

    He said he had confidence in Iran's ability to find a solution to the nuclear crisis.

    "We respect the right of the Islamic Republic to acquire scientific knowledge [in this area], in respect of international law," he said.

    Mr Mottaki is the first senior Iranian to visit Iraq since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the newly-formed Iraqi government came to power.

    The two nations fought an eight-year war in the 1980s and relations remain complex, despite improving dramatically since the fall of Saddam Hussein.