U.S. will meet with Iran
WASHINGTON – The White House announced Sunday that the American ambassador in Baghdad would likely meet in the next several weeks with Iranian officials about stabilizing Iraq, as the administration embraced a tactic outsiders have long recommended as essential to reducing sectarian violence in Iraq.
A White House spokesman said Ambassador Ryan Crocker, a Spokane Valley native, would meet with Iranian counterparts in Baghdad to prod Tehran to play a “productive role in Iraq.”
U.S. officials said the meeting could occur as early as next week.
“The president authorized this channel because we must take every step possible to stabilize Iraq and reduce the risk to our troops even as our military continue to act against hostile Iranian-backed activity in Iraq,” said Gordon Johndroe, the spokesman for the National Security Council.
Sunday’s announcement highlighted a new phase in the Bush administration’s thinking about the advisability of talks with a country the president has labeled a member of an “axis of evil.”
A year ago, the White House authorized discussions about Iraq with Iran, but talks never got off the ground. As recently as December, when the Iraq Study Group recommended diplomatic dialogue with Iran and Syria, administration officials indicated little interest in such talks, insisting that Iran first abandon nuclear enrichment activities.
But with pressure growing from Congress to show results in halting the violence in Iraq, the administration appears to have concluded that it’s worth trying to see if Iran can use its influence in Iraq to help curb violence and spur political reconciliation.
The administration is also shifting its stance toward Syria, another country with which it has had chilly relations, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meeting earlier this month in Egypt with her Syrian counterpart.
Administration officials stressed that the talks with Iran would be limited to the security situation in Iraq and would not include negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, which are being handled by America’s European allies. The United States broke diplomatic relations after U.S. diplomats were taken hostage in 1979; the administration has accused Tehran of helping foment violence in Iraq.
Former Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton, co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, called Sunday’s announcement an encouraging development. “We have a long and difficult list of problems with Iran. I would not expect immediate resolution of those, but you have to begin talks and they have to be sustained and they have to eventually get to the top levels of government,” he said in an interview.
A prominent supporter of the Iraq war, however, blasted the Bush administration’s decision to hold talks with Iran, saying it will be seen in the Mideast as a sign of American weakness. “I think it’s foolish to believe that Iran sees its interests as compatible with American interests in Iraq,” said Richard Perle, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-oriented think tank. “I don’t think they are interested in stability. Iran has been contributing to instability. That is a deliberate policy and I don’t expect it to change.”
A statement from the official Iranian news agency suggested the new talks were at the behest of Washington, though Johndroe would not say who initiated the new dialogue.