The former President of Iran, Mohammed Khatami, is going to visit the U.S. The state department has granted him a visa, and former President Jimmy Carter has agreed to be the host. No word yet on timing.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
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6 comments:
A faint glimmer but this is a hopeful development. Clever move by Bush if he's approved it behind the scenes. If it falls apart he blames Carter and his Republican base will leap at another chance to demonize Carter. If it works Bush'll take credit for arranging it.
I heard a good point on NPR today. The Iranian government has good reason to believe that the Bush administration wants to overthrow them regardless of what they do on the nuke issue. So what incentive do they have to cooperate?
A Democratic victory in 2006 could actually encourage cooperation.
// posted by Raised By Republicans
In my view, Iran's not really negotiating with us; they're negotiating with Europe and Russia.
// posted by LTG
Actually, they are using the Saddam Hussein/North Korea tactic. Stall, stall, enrich, enrich. All the cards are really in their hands. We can't hit them, even though we'd like to. And abandoning that hand is, from their perspective, unwise. In a sense, they hold everyone hostage.
I'd point out that Carter was the person who negotiated the first North Korea talks. He succeeded, but then his deal unraveled later.
The difference here is that there is a big split in Iran between the moderates and the conservatives. That is also feeding into the conflict.
// posted by USWest
Except, of course, that Saddam didn't have WMD...
// posted by LTG
Oh, sure LTG, go and bring facts into this. The point is Iraq had WMDs and was going to give them to Al Qaeda and blow us up at any moment right? Oh, wait, Bush just said no one ever suggested that...
// posted by Raised By Republicans
No. Blair did that. 45 minutes till attack and all that. I'll be glad to see the back of him, and have
// posted by LTG
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