DAR AL HARB - U.S.A.: POLITICAL COVER FOR A MOVE TO OPEN DIRECT TALKS WITH IRAN

Bush's Bluster on Iran Was Cover for Direct Talks E-mail this
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Gareth Porter, Electronic Iraq, 6 April 2007

WASHINGTON (IPS) - When the George W. Bush administration launched a high-profile campaign in January and February accusing Iran of exporting armor-piercing bombs to Shiite militias in Iraq, seizing Iranian officials in Iraq, threatening cross-border raids against Iran and sending a second carrier battle group into the Gulf, it seemed that it was entering a much more aggressive phase of Middle East policy.

A few weeks later, however, it is apparent that the administration's earlier bluster was primarily for domestic political purposes -- to reduce the sense that the administration had lost control over Iraq and the Middle East and to provide political cover for a move to open direct talks with Iran.

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By adopting the confrontational stance of January and February, Bush apparently hoped to create the appearance at home that he was more in control of the issue of Iraq.

The White House also calculated that a round of tough talk would make it politically easier to enter into talks with Iran later on. The main audience for the accusations and ostentatious threats against Tehran, therefore, was not the Iranians but domestic opinion.It is not clear that the White House is prepared yet for serious diplomatic give and take with Iran. Administration officials hope the two U.S. carrier battle groups in the Gulf, along with accompanying moves preparing for war, will intimidate the Iranians, and that the financial squeeze will also exert pressure on Tehran.

Nevertheless, Bush's blustering on Iran now looks much more like a cover for a decision to reverse his earlier policy of disdaining the need for an understanding with Iran. The combination of bluster and quiet acceptance of moves toward agreement recalls Richard Nixon's Christmas bombing of Hanoi in 1972, which was presented to the U.S. public as a great victory over the North Vietnamese, even as Nixon and Henry Kissinger were preparing to make the key concessions demanded by Hanoi in the final round of peace negotiations.

According to a report last December by Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan Landay of McClatchy newspapers, Bush met several times with Kissinger in the months before raising tensions with Tehran in January. He hoped to approximate Nixon's feat of maintaining an image of being "in control" even as he makes a move toward diplomatic agreement with Iran.


I believe Mr. Porter is incorrect in saying that it was just in the last 2-3 months that this 'about face' took place.

It is in early 2006 that this 'about face' took place, and its first sign was that of Secretary of State Rice signing the United States for further talks with Iran by the EU., we have come to refer to the members of this 'talking group' as the 5+1...



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1) Bush's Bluster on Iran Was Cover for Direct Talks