Talking to Iran

I’m going to try to finish my thought on US-Iran prospects for peace tonight.  It’s a good time to reflect, as everyone in the US is preoccupied with domestic budgetary issues (the so-called fiscal cliff), and the Gaza crisis has cooled off.  Sadly, the day following his world premiere into international diplomacy, Egypt’s President Morsi decided he wanted to be the new Nasser, and gave himself extraordinary powers.  I still admire his role is stopping the killing, but what is wrong with Egyptian leadership? 

The new Gaza crisis underscores the fragility of the region, and Iran’s role in making it that way.  But here’s the problem.  If you want to tie all that stuff to talks with Iran, or if Iran does, talks will bog down and stop.  We should be prepared to try to discuss the US-Iran relationship irrespective of Israel, the Palestinians, Hamas, Syria, Iraq, and all of that  We can tell Iran that if they want to discuss regional strategic policy with us, we first need to develop a two way understanding.

Both sides have work to do.  From the US side, we need to acknowledge that we have done a great deal to thwart Iranian national goals, as the primary underwriter of the Shah, and developing the concept of revolutionary Iran as an enemy of the US, using rhetoric like ‘Axis of Evil’ to describe them (well with a couple of other state entities we had issues with).  After thirty years of rule by the Islamic Republic, we should tell them that it is not on our agenda to overturn the Republic, regardless of serious disagreements.

Iran needs to respond in kind, recognizing that we are a nation with a pluralistic culture, part of which embraces Islam among a vast number of other ideas.  We are neither immoral nor amoral.  We need assurances of whatever type they can honestly reply, that they are not going to disrupt the status quo through violent means.

If this beginning feels too ethereal, please understand the amount of hatred which has been hurled both ways.  This basic discussion is to stop the poisonous atmosphere, so that we can lay a groundwork for peace.

With such prerequisite understandings achieved, we need to appeal to Iran over the benefits of non-proliferation.  We need to discuss this with humility as the super-power with the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, and we need to acknowledge that as a result we are forced into a terrible responsibility to never again use them in aggression.  If we were to hear Ayatollah Khamenai speak to this moral trap of nuclear weapon possession, then we begin to unwrap the distrust.

In the short term, these talks do little.  If they get Iran to adhere to UN resolutions on enrichment, we can start to unwind the sanctions, and stop discussing ‘red lines’.  Even if we don’t achieve that much, we have the basis for a relationship that isn’t based on mutual hatred.  Let the hawks laugh at this as a ‘soft’ approach, but I cannot imagine a path forward from ‘hard-liners’ in any countries achieving better results.

Peace to all of you.