Opinion - Editorials   

Time to talk to Iran

For a quarter of a century, the United States has doggedly refused formally to engage Iran in anything resembling a dialogue process. Prior to 1980, Teheran was one of Washington's most allied allies, a heavily armed outpost that practised repression against its own people, looted the oil wealth of the country, and helped in the projection of American power in the Persian Gulf and West Asia. But the Islamic revolution changed all that. The Reagan administration supported the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq in its aggression against Iran and the 1990s saw the erection of a range of sanctions aimed at stifling the Iranian oil industry. Through this period, the U.S. has pursued a policy of unremitting hostility towards Iran and has never hidden its aim of bringing about `regime change'. The nuclear issue has now brought Washington to the verge of war, though its hand has been stayed by the Iraq fiasco as well as by its failure to secure the support of even one country other than Israel for any military action. Even its desire to get the United Nations to impose sanctions has hit a major roadblock, with Russia and China so far refusing to walk down that path. It is essentially the lack of options that has compelled President George Bush to signal his willingness to participate in multilateral negotiations with Iran over the future of its nuclear programme. Unfortunately, his offer to talk is not unconditional and the one precondition spelt out — that Iran should end all its activities relating to nuclear fuel enrichment — is unlikely to appeal to Teheran.

It is clear that the negotiating process must be unconditional. Washington also needs to realise that Iran will not accept being singled out as the country that must give up its right to the nuclear fuel cycle. If there is a general international move towards the multinational fuel cycle approaches outlined by the International Atomic Energy Agency's Pellaud report, Iran may agree to be part of that constructive effort. But in the context of illegal pressure involving the threat of sanctions and the use of force, Teheran is unlikely to accept Washington's demand to give up its enrichment programme. The Iranian nuclear issue also needs to be examined in the context of the demand for a Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in which Israel renounces nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. As for the wider set of issues, any grand bargain must involve the lifting of U.S. sanctions on the Iranian energy and banking sectors; the de-freezing of Iranian assets; and a comprehensive security dialogue on the right of the Palestinians to a viable state of their own on all the territories Israel occupies illegally and on Israel's right to exist within its own secure territories. Many of these issues are no doubt unpalatable to the Bush administration but it must start the dialogue process without preconditions and without delay.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Job guarantee report card
Time to talk to Iran
The PDS and eroding food security
What are the Indian President's powers?
Time for a global conversation about migrants
Seeing India and China through fresh eyes
Corrections and clarifications
Shocking behaviour
Caste and media
New IT forms

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu