European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana (L) and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani (R) demonstrate willingness to hold talks, although they have nothing to agree upon.
Photo: AFP
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U.S. Suddenly Wants Talks with Iran
Turkey hosted on Wednesday the negotiations between EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and Iran’s National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani. At the same time, U.S. President George Bush said that next month the U.S. might enter direct talks with Tehran, for the first time in many years. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to meet with Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki at an international conference in Egypt. However, all these negotiations might be a tactic move: Washington is simply trying to prove that any dialogue with Tehran is meaningless.
Secret Relations
Leakages from diplomatic sources, that Washington has entered intensive secret talks with Tehran, have become frequent in U.S. mass media recently. For instance, Houston Chronicle reported that Switzerland acts as the go-between in the secret contacts. That country has represented U.S. interests in Iran since 1979, due to the absence of U.S. embassy there. Reportedly, the dialogue concerns a wide range of issues: first of all, the fate of U.S. citizens listed as missing in Iraq, the Iranian citizens detained by U.S. servicemen during the raid in Iraq’s Erbil several months ago, and the long-term economic and financial disputes. “There is absolutely no doubt that now we are ready to hold dialogue, -- much more ready than several years ago,” a source in the U.S. Department of State said to Houston Chronicle reporter.
Another evidence that Washington intends to carry on dialogue with Tehran is that, according to frequent news in U.S. mass media, a special mission is laid on Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Diplomatic sources claim that he is to establish bridges between the two antagonistic countries. Allegedly, Washington believes that Shiite Muslim Hoshyar Zebari has long-standing and durable relations in Tehran, and thus will be able to persuade Iranian authorities to meet the U.S. half-way.
The international conference on Iraq to be held in Egypt next month will become the apogee of U.S. striving for dialogue. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will take part in it. Besides, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is to attend the same conference. Speaking for PBS channel, U.S. President George Bush said that Rice and Mottaki can meet to hold bilateral talks, which would become unprecedented for modern Iran-U.S. relations. Bush said the top diplomats will discuss not the nuclear program, but the chances to improve the relations between the two states.
The issue of direct U.S.-Iran talks has been in the air for many years already. After the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the following seizure of the U.S. embassy, Washington had no official contacts with Tehran. The ‘dialogue among civilizations’ declared by previous Iranian president Mohammad Khatami failed to lead to rapprochement either. Even in those years when the E.U. actively moved towards the Islamic republic, Washington was refraining from rapprochement. It is only now that the U.S. suddenly expressed readiness to enter contact with the current Iranian authorities, who implement a radical and unacceptable for the U.S. foreign policy.
Dangerous Results
The meeting between EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and Iran’s National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani in Ankara on Wednesday was another instance of the general striving for solving the Iranian crisis. The meeting’s key issue was Iran’s nuclear program.
After the talks, Larijani told journalists that Tehran expects ‘new ideas’ from the E.U.. On the other hand, Solana’s spokesperson Cristina Gallach said “there happened no changes in the world community’s position”, but the negotiators’ top priority is “to create conditions for beginning the talks”.
However, the long history of the dialogue between the current Iranian authorities with the world community showed that all kinds of meetings is just a semblance of negotiations. In reality, the parties’ key demands are so different that no compromise is possible with Iran’s or the West’s making concessions and giving up their conditions. Larijani said Wednesday that the negotiations process was blocked after “unacceptable irrational conditions were set”, that is the demand that Iran stop uranium-enrichment operations. Iran’s authorities declare almost daily they will not give up this inherent right of theirs. On the other hand, Solana confirmed on Wednesday that “if the solution can be found, it is only by stopping uranium enrichment”. The six powers (five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany) said repeatedly while discussing the crisis there will be no talks with Iran until it suspends uranium enrichment.
Apparently, the current revival of talks between the West and Iran is rather a tactic move. Both parties have been exacerbating the relations recently, and there have been no signs of rapprochement. The two-month deadline set for Iran by the U.N. Security Council’s resolution, calling on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, expired in February 2007. Iran ignored the resolution. Moreover, it declared speeding up the enrichment. A new resolution, imposing additional sanctions on Tehran, was ratified on March 24. It is coming into force in mid-May. The resolution does not stipulate resorting to force if Iran fails to meet the world community’s demands. Apparently, none of the upcoming resolutions will allow using force. However, every next step of Iran and of the Security Council brings nearer the possibility of the force scenario. In response to the resolution, Iran said it intends to limit the cooperation with the IAEA, until Tehran’s ‘nuclear files’ are returned from the Security Council to the IAEA. Two weeks ago, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad announced about another significant achievement in the country’s nuclear program. He said that Iran moved from the R&D stage of uranium enrichment to the industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel.
One of the key factors now holding back the Bush administration is the U.S. public opinion and the position of European countries asking to use diplomatic ways to solve the Iranian crisis. Apparently, the current news about talks becoming more frequent should fill up that gap. No talks between the U.S. and Iran, -- neither secret, nor open, -- can solve the conflict, because neither of the countries wants to settle it, and both intend to strive for victory with maximally weakening the opponent. The meeting between Rice and Mottaki, announced by George Bush, might fail to take place. It is most likely that Tehran will decline Washington’s initiative for this or that reason. Thus, the U.S. will have the chance to show how sincerely it was striving for peaceful settlement and diplomatic solution, and how useless and impossible the dialogue with Iran is. And then, in a couple of months, Washington will have no alternative ways to solve the Iranian crisis.
Pavel Morzh
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 26, 2007
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