US experts: Dialogue with Iran needed
A new report compiled by American experts and addressed to president-elect Barack Obama contains recommendations on the region, including Iran and Hamas, which might raise eyebrows in Jerusalem’s security establishment.
An Iranian missile is displayed during a military parade.
Photo: AP
Slideshow: Pictures of the week The next US president will need to pursue a new strategic framework for advancing American interests in the Middle East, says a new report entitled “Restoring the Balance - A Middle East Strategy for the Next President” published Tuesday and compiled over a period of 18 months.
The report cites sectarian conflict in Iraq, Iran’s race to build a nuclear weapon, failing Palestinian and Lebanese governments, a dormant peace process between Israel and the Palestinians and the ongoing war against terror as the issues Obama will have to face.
Following an overview chapter by Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center, individual chapters address the Arab-Israeli conflict, counterterrorism, Iran, Iraq, political and economic development, and nuclear proliferation.
The chapter devoted to Iran calls on the new administration to open multilateral dialogue between the US and Iran on all outstanding issues. Diplomacy, the report says, should begin immediately at a low level, even before the Iranian elections in June 2009, so that the US can better understand the Iranian hierarchy and political dynamic.
The chapter also calls on the US to view Iran as one united nation, ruled by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - a recommendation that goes against the strategy of trying to leverage inter-Iranian discord in order to effect regime change from within, without direct external intervention.
The report says Iran is two to three years away from being capable of militarizing its nuclear program, and this time is seen as sufficient for the US to adopt an updated diplomatic approach to prevent such a move from Teheran.
Intelligence assessments i