{"id":296,"date":"2007-05-23T09:29:55","date_gmt":"2007-05-23T14:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=296"},"modified":"2007-05-23T11:05:38","modified_gmt":"2007-05-23T16:05:38","slug":"us-iranian-make-up-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=296","title":{"rendered":"US-Iranian Make-Up Sex"},"content":{"rendered":"
Does anybody remember what Kissi<\/title>Does anybody remember what Kissinger and the Chinese were saying about each other right before Nixon arrived in China?<\/p>\n<p>[This is not a rhetorical question.\u00c2\u00a0 I have no idea, but would appreciate some guidance.]<\/p>\n<p>I’m trying to figure out if there is any precedence for the current dance between Iran and the US in which two parties appear to rattle sabers all the way up to the moment they embrace as the oldest of friends.<\/p>\n<p>Robin Wright captures the nutty spirit of the moment in her<em> Washington Post<\/em> article, “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/05\/22\/AR2007052201406.html\">Tehran Detains 4th Iranian American Before Talks<\/a><em>.<\/em>”<\/p>\n<p>Is the idea here that the intensity of the “make-up sex” improves with the bitterness of the prior strife?<\/p>\n<p>Or, are the key players playing to domestic factional politics, trying to distract their own hardliners and rejectionists even as they lurch toward mutual embrace?<\/p>\n<p>Consider, for example, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/worldlatest\/story\/0,,-6638308,00.html\"> Associated Press<\/a> report that accompanied Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s blessing of the US-Iranian dialogue:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Iran’s supreme leader gave his backing Wednesday to U.S.-Iran talks about \tIraq’s security. But he took a tough line, insisting the meeting will deal \tonly with fixing American policies in Iraq, not changing Iran’s.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s harsh tone appeared aimed at quieting criticism \tby hard-liners over the planned meeting in Baghdad with the United States<\/strong>…<\/p>\n<p>Khamenei said Iran agreed to the “face-to-face negotiation” to “remind \tthe U.S. of its responsibilities and duties regarding security” and “give \tthem an ultimatum.” He did not specify what the ultimatum was.<\/p>\n<p>“The talks will only be about the responsibilities of the occupiers in \tIraq,” he said during a speech to a group of clerics in Mashhad city, about \t620 miles northeast of Tehran, according to state-run television.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As I noted in <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=295\">a previous post<\/a>, some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/iran\/story\/0,,2085193,00.html\">“anonymous” American officials<\/a> in Baghdad and Washington have adopted an equally hawkish posture ahead of talks with Iran.\u00c2\u00a0 [Update: Also, there continue to be <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.abcnews.com\/theblotter\/2007\/05\/bush_authorizes.html\"> rumors<\/a> that the White House has authorized covert action to destabilize the Iranian regime.]<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Cheney and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appear to be drawing from the same play book.\u00c2\u00a0 [It makes sense; they both appear to be “supreme leader” even though neither is actually president.]\u00c2\u00a0 Cheney has <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2007\/WORLD\/meast\/05\/13\/cheney.iran.ap\/index.html\"> given his blessing<\/a> to the US-Iranian talks, even as he recently did some <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=290\">very serious saber rattling<\/a> from the deck of the USS John C. Stennis.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker seems to be tasked with preparing the ground for what he has called “<a href=\"http:\/\/iraq.usembassy.gov\/iraq\/20070518_roundtable.html\">a whole new era<\/a>” in the Gulf.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[The Iranians] have an extensive relationship with Iraq, but pretty \tclearly, from our perspective, not all aspects of it are helpful and some of \tthem are positively dangerous. I mean, their support for militias, their \tinvolvement in the development and transfer of EFPs that are killing our \tforces, these are not good things, not from a U.S. point of view and not \tfrom an Iraqi point of view. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I made the point I did about \tthe, kind of the difference we see between the articulation of <strong>Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \tpolicy interests and goals, which again track pretty closely with ours<\/strong>, \tand then what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re actually doing on the ground. It would be a very good \tthing if they brought their actions more into alignment with their words.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We have no problem with a close relationship between Iran and Iraq<\/strong>. \tWhat <strong>we do have a problem with is Iranian behavior in Iraq that is<\/strong> \tagain counter to what we want to see, what the Iraqi government and people \twant to see and indeed <strong>counter to some of their own stated interests<\/strong>. \tThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what we want to see change. But you know, Iran and Iraq \u00e2\u20ac\u201dIraq\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \tlongest border is with Iran. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re neighbors forever, for better or for \tworse; for a very long time it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been for worse. No country has suffered \tmore, with the exception of Iraq itself, from Saddam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s regime than the \tIranians. <strong>There is an opportunity here for them, I think, to move into a \twhole new era<\/strong> in a relationship with a stable, secure, democratic Iraq \tthat threatens none of its neighbors, including Iran. But, you know, to get \tthere they need to start doing some more constructive things than they have.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Jim Hoagland’s recent column in the<em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/05\/18\/AR2007051801706.html\"> Washington Post<\/a><\/em> noted the persistence of rumors that the US would seek to restore Sunni Baathist by supporting a coup against the Shiite government in Iraq.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Washington [would take serious risks] by strong-arming the admittedly \tfaltering government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki out of office and \treplacing Maliki with a U.S.-anointed Iraqi savior.<\/p>\n<p>Arab allies are urging such a course on Bush and would not object to U.S. \tmilitary action against Iran. There is growing concern in Baghdad that \tWashington is developing a “Plan B” that involves both hitting Iran and \tousting Maliki…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenews.com.pk\/updates.asp?id=22724\">Some in Iran<\/a>–including Mohammad Javad Larijani, brother of Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani–reportedly share similar concerns about US intentions.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps this helps explain the “leak” of a classified US plan by Crocker and David Petraeus that affirms US support for Prime Minister Maliki.<\/p>\n<p>Ann Scott Tyson reports in the <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/05\/22\/AR2007052201600_pf.html\"> Washington Post<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The classified plan, scheduled to be finished by May 31, is a joint \teffort between Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior American general in Iraq, \tand U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. More than half a dozen people with \tknowledge of the plan discussed its contents…<\/p>\n<p>The plan is… designed to shore up Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, \teven though some U.S. commanders regard him as beholden to narrow sectarian \tinterests….<\/p>\n<p>“Maliki is the chosen vehicle; he’s the one-trick pony,” Dodge said in an \tinterview from London. “Everyone recognizes that the success or failure [of \tU.S. policy] would be delivered through the office of the prime minister” \tand there is no discussion in Baghdad of removing him, he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Message to Iran: the US is sticking with the “<a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=200\">Shiite Option<\/a>” in Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does anybody remember what KissiDoes anybody remember what Kissinger and the Chinese were saying about each other right before Nixon arrived in China? [This is not a rhetorical question.\u00c2\u00a0 I have no idea, but would appreciate some guidance.] I’m trying to figure out if there is any precedence for the current dance between Iran and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}