U.S. Suddenly Wants Talks with Iran

Pavel Morzh

Apr. 26, 2007

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.

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