Talking with
Iran
By Siddique Malik
www.spreadfreedom.com
By placing a condition on its offer to join Britain,
France and Germany in holding direct talks with
Iran over the latter’s nuclear ambitions,
Washington has cast a doubt over its sincerity
in giving diplomacy a ‘robust’ chance.
Emboldened by the fact that Washington finds itself
between Iraq and a hard place, Iran’s president,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has perched on a psychological
pedestal. His hard talk against Israel and the
United States has earned him points not only with
extremists in his country but also with hardliner
Muslims worldwide. Consequently, he thinks that
he is flying high.
Meanwhile, it is because of a severe lack of options
induced by its self-created Iraq predicament that
the Bush Administration has done something to
which it is generally averse. It has chosen the
path of deliberations rather than confrontation.
Ahmadinejad is not going to relinquish this victory
(Washington’s recognition of his boisterous
and at times obnoxious existence) by fulfilling
the precondition, simply because Washington feels
a sense of embarrassment in making an unconditional
offer of parleys.
The precondition makes no sense, unless our government
is secretly wishing that its offer will fizzle
out because of the expected Iranian intransigence.
The precondition requires Iran to temporarily
suspend its uranium enrichment activities. How
can Iran be expected to do something as a precondition
that in fact is the objective of the proposed
talks, i.e., halting uranium enrichment? Iran
will continue with these activities if it rejects
the precondition or takes many weeks to ponder
over it. Why not make the offer unconditional
and get the talks underway as soon as possible?
This is no time for searching for face-saving
devices.
The best way to deflate Ahmadinejad’s bubble
is to make the offer unconditional so that he
has no choice but to accept it. If he still does
not come to the table, the other four permanent
Security Council members will almost certainly
help us design stiff UN sanctions against Iran.
Also, Ahmadinejad will lose the support of the
Muslim world and that of the group of non-aligned
countries. He will fall from his pedestal, flat
on his nose.
On the other hand, if he comes to the table, it
will be even better. In tussles of the modern
times, victory comes in the form of a winning
argument delivered through sophisticated negotiation
techniques, not empty slogans. While America specializes
in the first category, all, Ahmadinejad has is
the ability to raise empty slogans. Let us force
him to show his hand and shut him up. I am sure
we are capable of having the last laugh.
Ahmadinejad’s slogans my be empty at this
time but there is no denying that unless Iran’s
nuclear ambitions are soon put under the watchful
eyes of the world, Iran will become a thorn in
the foot of the civilized world. No country with
a government that specializes in exploiting religion
should have access to the technology to make nuclear
weapons. Religion and logic are mutually exclusive.
What spared the world a nuclear doomsday during
the cold war was both sides’ unwavering
reliance upon logic. This cannot be said about
countries like Iran. Therefore, we cannot afford
to leave any stone unturned while dealing with
such countries.
Soon after Saddam Hussien’s statue fell
in Baghdad, dictatorial regimes in countries around
Iraq underwent an overnight transformation. Syria
started to talk of democracy. Iran became silent
like an owl in the sunlight. In the absence of
a viable plan to transform post-Saddam Iraq, as
chaos and insurgency overwhelmed the coalition
forces in Iraq, dictators around Iraq switched
back into their regular anti-freedom mode. The
Syrian regime is again suppressing freedom and
making cheap shots at America. Iranian dissidents
are being imprisoned, again. And, of course, if
it was not because of America’s Iraq quagmire,
Ahmadinejad would not talk of nuclear plans in
a brazen way. Regardless of whatever objective
Iraq project was supposed to achieve for America,
the lack of proper project planning resulted in
America’s military prowess being second-guessed
by countries like Iran.
After the Vietnam debacle, it was not until the
first Gulf War in which America fought under a
brilliant strategy that America’s military
image was reestablished. The current administration’s
lack of attention to details and its eagerness
to start and glorify war have brought America
back to where it was after the Vietnam War. Consequently,
it now seems like we no longer have conventional
military options in dealing with the tyrants.
This is the reason there has been a talk in Washington
of nuking Iran. Of course, every one knows this
is not really an option. It was only when this
loose nuke talk started to emanate, it became
clear to Ahmadinejad that it was only a matter
of time before Washington realized that it had
no option but to talk. The Iraq project was expected
to make America’s word potent but it has
made it look weak. The Bush Administration must
bear responsibility for this situation.
However, diplomacy is always a better option than
war unless, of course, it is fully exhausted before
the emergence of the crisis-resolution. When American
diplomats sit down face to face with Iranian diplomats,
there will be an irony in the atmosphere that
it took the situation in Iraq for the American
government to consider diplomacy as an option.
The threat of war makes diplomacy succeed. As
Iran shows its expected stubbornness at the table,
American diplomats will find themselves grinding
their teeth while wishing that the Iraq project
was launched with a great deal of planning.
While making the conditional offer to Iran, Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice injected a certain amount
of grace and fairness into the conditional talks
offer when she accepted Iran’s right to
generate nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Let us go all the way and make the offer unconditional.
Elegance, fairness, sincerity and honesty are
qualities with which the American nation is endowed.
It is about time our government shows these qualities
while representing us to the world. Let the talks
begin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
