BUSH’S IRAN DECISION BRINGS MIXED REACTIONS

New York Sun
July 17 2008

WASHINGTON — Just as Senator Obama was in the process of refining
his position on the Iraq war, the presumptive Democratic presidential
nominee is seizing on President Bush’s decision to embrace diplomacy
on Iran as a move that fits with his own plan to begin nuclear talks
with the mullahs without preconditions.

The undersecretary of state for political affairs, William Burns,
will attend European talks with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed
Jalili, on Saturday as part of what has been dubbed "pre-negotiations"
on unresolved issues dealing with Iran’s nuclear program.

While the Bush administration has sent envoys to meet with Iranians
in multilateral settings on their support of terrorism in Iraq and
post-war planning in Afghanistan, the president in 2006 conditioned
any direct nuclear talks with Iran on the suspension of enrichment
activities.

That red line appears to have been crossed, and conservatives are
outraged. President Bush’s former ambassador to the United Nations,
John Bolton, said the decision legitimizes Mr. Obama’s position that
America should begin talks with Iran without requiring the mullahs
to stop uranium enrichment.

"Even if this is a one time only event in the Bush administration,
it legitimizes the Obama administration to do the same thing,"
he said. "It undercuts McCain, and Republicans on the Hill. This
is the State Department effort to insure a smooth transition to the
Obama administration."

The executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein, said he worried that
the presence of Mr. Burns in Switzerland "could be seen as a victory
for President Ahmadinejad and his hard-line supporters. Certainly
in Iran, one has to anticipate that this will be seen as helping
Ahmadinejad’s hard line stance."

Mr. Obama yesterday had a different view. He said in a statement:
"I welcome news that the Bush Administration has shifted course and
will send an envoy for direct talks as part of the P5+1 with the
Iranians in Geneva this weekend. I commend our European allies and
other friends on this effort."

The P5+1 refers to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security
Council — America, China, France, Russia, and Britain, plus
Germany. The Iranians last month rejected an incentives offer from
these nations of nuclear technology in exchange for a suspension of
uranium enrichment and transparency with U.N. inspectors, who have
yet to close the file on the history of Iran’s nuclear work since
they began their probe in 2003. Secretary of State Rice has said
the offer of incentives only applies when the Iranians end their
enrichment of uranium.

Senator McCain’s campaign said that sending Mr. Burns as an observer
in the nuclear talks "is a much more realistic approach than engaging
in the unilateral cowboy summitry advocated by Senator Obama."

Senator Kerry, the Democrat of Massachusetts who was his party’s
presidential nominee in 2004, said the decision to send Mr. Burns
to the meeting in Geneva "could be the most welcome flip flop in
diplomatic history."

The decision to engage Iran on its nuclear program comes as the
mullahs are cracking down again on their own citizens who choose to
affiliate with American nongovernment organizations. The Asia Society
yesterday confirmed that two HIV-AIDS activists affiliated with the
group have gone missing and are likely being detained. The brothers,
Drs. Arash and Kamiar Alae, were fellows for 2008 and 2009 at the Asia
Society. The executive vice president of the Asia Society, Jamie Metzl,
said he was trying to contact the proper authorities to determine their
whereabouts. Both Alae brothers have been missing since last month.

Also missing is a program officer in Armenia for the International
Research and Exchange Board, Harotonian Tazekand. The president
of that organization, Mark Pomar, wrote a July 14 letter to Iran’s
chief justice, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, asking about her
whereabouts after she had gone missing June 20.

The status of the three Iranian nationals harkens back to the crisis
last summer when Iran detained scholars affiliated with the Wilson
Center and the Open Society Institute on charges of trying to spark
a velvet revolution.