"...several of his public remarks aimed at dampening of expectationsabout rapid progress with the Iranians -- describing the prospects of a "grand bargain" as "very remote... very unlikely" -- to be a bit over the top and unhelpful in the current climate of pre-negotiations.Such dampening is more appropriate where there are actually are high expectations. But it's hard to find such expectations anywhere outside of the fevered anxieties of Arab leaders such as Mubarak, obsessed with real or imagined Iranian plots against their regimes. Such leaders may too easily take such reassurances as an endorsement for their retreat into Bush era anti-Iranian agitation, which would in turn make the prospects for a U.S.-Iranian deal that much more difficult. I hope that his private conversations also emphasized the seriousness with which the U.S. will approach the engagement with Iran and held out the real prospect of success. Otherwise this could turn out to be a quite counter-productive mission.
The other way to read the remarks, of course, is that Gates's skeptical remarks reflect accurately the outcome of Dennis Ross's review of Iran policy. If that's the case, then it could augur poorly for hopes for a serious dialogue aimed at a serious transformation of the U.S.-Iranian relationship... "
No comments:
Post a Comment