Shift In US Stance Shows Power Of Nukes
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Courtesy Of: The Washington Post
By Glenn Kessler,
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 1, 2006

The Bush administration's decision to consider sitting down with the Iranian government underscores a central truth of diplomacy today. Nuclear Weapons Buy Leverage.

For six years, President Bush and his aides have dismissed the idea of talking with Iran about its nuclear programs, and until last year gave little support to European efforts to restrain Iranian nuclear activity.

Attempts by former President Mohammad Khatami, a moderate, to foster a dialogue were rejected, and even back-channel moves failed to gain traction.

Now, in perhaps the biggest foreign policy shift of his presidency, Bush has approved the idea of sitting down at the table with the Iranian government--one headed by a former student radical who denies the Holocaust. Attached to the U.S. offer was a stern condition: A verified suspension of Iran's nuclear enrichment operations.

But the offer overturned a long-standing taboo, and it came from an administration stocked with officials who have made little secret of their desire to overthrow the government in Tehran.

The administration made this move at a moment of weakness. The president's public opinion ratings are among the lowest ever recorded for a modern president, and oil prices have reached record levels, in part because of the confrontation with Iran. The high price of oil, in turn has enriched the Iranian treasury.

Iran recently announced it had learned how to achieve a key aspect of enriching uranium--sooner than expected--Raising the stakes in the confrontation.

Even so, the lingering fallout from the administration's decision to attack Iraq has made it increasingly difficult to win the support for sanctions on Iran from critical nations such as Russia and China.

A key factor in Bush's decision yesterday is the influence of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who announced the offer in a televised news conference.

Since becoming Secretary of State last year, Rice has worked assiduously to make certain that the United States does not maneuver itself into becoming the world's enemy No. 1, as it did on the Iraq War.

When Rice made her trip overseas as secretary last year, to Europe, she has expected to hear a lot of concern about Iraq. Instead, she later said, she was surprised to learn that the confrontation over Iran's nuclear program was a bigger concern--And that the United States was considered the problem.

...At the time, Rice insisted that the decision to support the Europeans did not mean the Americans would Join the talks. (lower-level U.S. officials on occasion have talked to Iranian counterparts about Afghanistan and Iraq).

"We've made very clear that we have a lot of other problems with the Iranians," Rice said when she announced the decision in March 2005.

"We've also made very clear that we don't intend to do anything to legitimize the Iranian regime. And so what we're looking at here is helping the Europeans in their diplomacy, not shifting policy toward Iran."

But the Iranians walked away from those talks, and the administration slowly found itself drawn into a different stance as the diplomacy unfolded.

Rice needed to win over the Russians and Chinese--and keep the Europeans in line--So she quietly dropped the objections to the Iranian desire for nuclear power.

Previously, the administration had insisted Iran had no need for nuclear power because of its vast oil and gas reserves. But to placate other nations, U.S. officials retreated from that insistence.

"The Iranian people believe they have a right to civil nuclear energy," Rice said yesterday.

"We acknowledge that right."

To read the complete article:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/31/AR2006053101931_pf.html