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Untold Story: Secret U.S.-Iranian talks?
Posted By Amina Anderson
Today’s meeting between the EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Turkey signals a continued EU wish to find a compromise over Tehran’s nuclear program and avoid confrontation with a major oil supplier and trade partner.
The meeting, which came days after the EU expanded sanctions against Iran over its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program, complies with the EU’s “carrot and stick” approach with Tehran - tougher sanctions on the one hand, with economic incentives on the other.
This approach is different than that of the United States, which claims that it is dedicated to finding a diplomatic solution but does not engage with the Iranians and does not rule out military action as a last resort. However, recent developments suggest that the calls of those who favor engagement with Tehran have been finally heard by the Bush administration, according to an article on McClatchy newspaper.
Quoting top U.S. officials, the paper said American officials have increased their back-channel diplomatic contacts with their Iranian counterparts in recent months. Using Switzerland as an intermediary, U.S. and Iranian officials have exchanged diplomatic messages on a variety of issues, including the fate of former FBI agent Robert Levinson who is missing in Iran, the future of five Iranian officials seized by U.S. occupation forces in Iraq last January, as well as old financial and property disputes, the sources said.
"There's no doubt there's more willingness to talk now than there was a few years ago," an unidentified State Department official was quoted as saying.
Although the talks do not focus on the biggest U.S.-Iranian dispute: Iran's uranium-enrichment program, they indicate a major shift in the policy of the United States, which repeatedly rebuffed Tehran’s offers of wide-ranging talks on its nuclear program, Middle East peace and direct relations after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Western diplomats also said that Washington, as well as other Western powers, expressed readiness to allow Iran to keep some its uranium enrichment program intact instead of demanding its complete dismantling.
Apparently, this option could be a good compromise as Western states refuse to resume full negotiations with Iran unless it completely halts its nuclear program, something the Islamic Republic strongly rejects.
All the recent developments indicate that there’s potentially more flexibility in the U.S.’s position than before, an American official was quoted as saying.
But it remains unclear whether the shift in Washington’s approach toward Iran is a long-term shift or a tactic to persuade Tehran to attend another regional meeting about Iraq’s future that would be held in Egypt next week .
Iran, which attended the first conference in Iraq last March, has threatened to boycott the meeting unless the U.S. releases the five Iranians held in Iraq.
In another sign that the Bush administration is bowing to Congress pressure to open dialogue with Iran and Syria to stabilize Iraq, the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, due to travel to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik to attend the Iraq conference, urged Tehran to send an envoy.
It would be a "missed opportunity" for Iran if it didn't show up, Rice told the Financial Times this week.
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