".... It's easy to see the role of the principals: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers the lead message, signaling overall policy positions. Defense Secretary Robert Gates holds the line that there are no good military solutions, while reiterating that all options are on the table. National Security Advisor Jim Jones is in charge of overall policy coordination.........
some -- but by no means all -- of the most important players:
Bill Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs. .... A skilled diplomat, he was previously ambassador to Russia, and assistant secretary for Near East affairs before that. Insiders describe Burns as quietly effective, a reasoned and thoughtful voice. Steve Mull is the key Iran guy in Burns' shop.
Dennis Ross, special assistant to the president and senior director for the central region.... He works with Puneet Talwar, the NSC senior director responsible for Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf, and they do things in coordination and in parallel on Iran. Ross is consistently a voice but never the only voice when it comes to the Iran discussion.
Bob Einhorn, State Department advisor for nonproliferation and arms control. Einhorn is a technical guy and a seasoned nuclear negotiator who got much of the credit for the now-troubled Geneva deal over transferring Iran's low-enriched uranium to France....
Stuart Levey, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. Levey's operation has been very successful in targeting banks and the income of key regime officials under existing sanctions. He's an important carryover from the Bush years, ...... he plays a large and growing role, not least due to his ability to act without international or congressional approval.
Dan Poneman, deputy secretary of energy. When the U.S. held talks with Iran over providing fuel to the Tehran Research Reactor in October, Poneman was the lead U.S. negotiator. .... a former principal in the Scowcroft group, he's widely respected and relied upon for things like how to organize fuel supply or establish proper safeguards. Insiders say he's a problem-solver, not an ideologue.
Gary Samore, special assistant to the president and White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, proliferation, and terrorism.... Observers see him as skeptical of nuclear deals with Tehran. Rexon Ryu, an ex-staffer for retired Sen. Chuck Hagel and a former Foreign Service officer, works for Samore and has been active on Iran at the staff level.
John Limbert, deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran.... The most senior Farsi speaker in the U.S. government, he's married to an Iranian woman, served the Peace Corps in Iran, and was an involuntary guest of the Iranian government for 444 days three decades ago. The team relies on Limbert, who recently published a book called Negotiating with Iran, when crafting messages to Iran and thinking through how the country's complex internal politics factor in.
Jeffrey Feltman, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. Feltman is charged with managing U.S. relationships with other regional actors as they relate to the Iran nuclear issue. Many Arab regimes are deeply worried at the direction Iran's nuclear program is heading, and Feltman's role here is to make sure the U.S. government and its embassies are communicating and coordinating with them as the ball continues to bounce.
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