DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - U.S.A./IRAN: "WE SHOULD NOT NEGOTIATE ONLY ABOUT IRAQ" SAYETH ALI LARIJANI

US-Iran: Taking talks to the next level
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Iran and the United States are gearing up for a new round of discussions on Iraq and, already, there is a call by a prominent Iranian politician to expand those talks to broader issues such as Afghanistan, Persian Gulf security, and the tensions in the Middle East. If adopted, this would mean the beginning of a qualitatively new type of strategic dialogue.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, the brother of Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and head of the powerful Supreme National Security Council, who advises the government on foreign policy, had this to say: "We should not negotiate only about Iraq," citing Iran's national-interest priorities in support of his position.

In a certain sense, the climate is somewhat ready to leapfrog the nascent US-Iran dialogue to a more inclusive, broader purview befitting the description "strategic" given the interconnectedness of various issues.

On the one hand, there is a growing pressure on the administration of US President George W Bush, particularly by Democratic contenders for presidency such as Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, for sustained dialogue with Iran. Richardson in particular has called on the US government to stop "threatening Iran" and to offer more tangible incentives to Tehran to gain a compromise on the nuclear issue.

On the other hand, the momentum for a new round of United Nations sanctions on Iran has been put into slow motion by the positive outcome of last week's meetings between Ali Larijani and the European Union's foreign-policy chief, Javier Solana, and the International Atomic Energy Agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, culminating in a new visit to Iran by IAEA inspectors in the coming weeks - to "resolve the ambiguities", to paraphrase Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Consequently, with EU and IAEA officials expressing renewed optimism about peaceful resolution of the Iran nuclear crisis, and ElBaradei's scathing criticism of any military option as "madness", the stage is set for a real breakthrough, which may come in the form of an international consortium to produce nuclear fuel on Iran's territory, in other words the idea first proposed by President Mahmud Ahmadinjead at the UN General Assembly in September 2005.
Not only that, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Feisal, has surprised many, particularly in Washington's policy circles, by proposing a joint Iran-Gulf Cooperation Council consortium to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, has responded favorably and, irrespective of whether any real movement happens, the mere diplomatic gestures serve the well-being of Iranian-Saudi relations.

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Pertinent Links:

1) US-Iran: Taking talks to the next level