| Author | Message | | Alpha | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 6:39 pm Post subject: Analysis: Iran looms over Obama Mideast peace bid |
| Analysis: Iran looms over Obama Mideast peace bid
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee
1 hr 55 mins ago
WASHINGTON – An increasingly emboldened Iran is both complicating and giving promise to the Obama administration's efforts to forge peace in the Middle East.
President Barack Obama and his team are reaching out to Iran. At the same time, the Islamic Republic's hostile rhetoric, nuclear activities and missile testing could drive a wedge between America and its closest Mideast ally, Israel.
But Iran's disjointed actions appear to be uniting the region against it.
The administration hopes to capitalize on what it sees as an unprecedented coalescence of opinion in the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors on Iran. The U.S. wants to use that convergence as leverage to press ahead with Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts as well as seek a broader Arab-Israeli accord.
This, officials argue, will isolate Tehran by removing the long-running conflict from the regional security equation.
Obama made that case to Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the White House this past week. The president is expected to do so again in this coming Thursday in talks in Washington with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as well as in early June when Obama is in Egypt for a major address to the Muslim world.
The strategy also involves trying to diminish Iran's influence in Syria and its anti-Israeli proxies in Lebanon by opening the door to better relations with Syria, where special Mideast envoy George Mitchell might go soon, officials said.
Experts believe Arab-Israeli consensus on Iran is real. But they note it is rooted in very different fears and, for that reason, may not hold. Still, some are optimistic about the chances this new consensus presents.
"The administration has to find the best path," said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Is this the best path? Given the opportunities, yes. They may not produce success but they offer the best alternative available."
So far, the administration's Iran overtures have not been reciprocated. Israel will resist if the U.S. tries to use the Iran threat to push Israel into making concessions in the peace process.
Iran's missile launch this past week probably will try Israel's patience. Israel regards Iran as an "existential threat" and has warned of a unilateral military strike unless there is diplomatic success soon to prevent Tehran from getting nuclear weapons capability.
Administration officials said they expressed concern about the launch but stopped short of an outright condemnation to reaffirm their readiness to extend an olive branch to Iran.
"We want to keep our hand outstretched," said one official familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal administration thinking.
The Obama team has been conducting an internal review of Iran policy. The administration has concluded it would reverse President George W. Bush's calculated shunning of Iran by reaching out and participating in meetings with Iranian officials on the nuclear issue.
The review is evolving and the next steps will be decided in large part based on how Iran responds to the initial overtures, officials said. They say it's unrealistic to expect responses ahead of Iran's elections next month. The hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, is seeking a second term.
Israel has deep reservations about an open-ended U.S. approach that could allow Iran to enrich enough uranium to produce nuclear weapons. Israel wants to see the Iranian threat dealt with before pursuing peace deals with the Arabs.
In the talks with Netanyahu, officials said Obama sought to allay Israeli concerns by agreeing to set up working groups that will gather senior U.S. and Israeli national security officials to consult on three areas: Iran, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and the Arab peace initiative.
After meeting Netanyahu, Obama said he did not want to set an "artificial deadline" for Iran to respond. Obama stressed that he wanted to see "serious process of engagement" after Iran's June 12 presidential elections, with an assessment of progress by year's end.
But U.S. officials said Iran probably won't get until the end of the year to demonstrate its willingness to address international concerns about its nuclear program. Such steps could include accepting an offer from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (the U.S., Britain, China, France and Russia) and Germany to suspend uranium enrichment, they said.
Dennis Ross, the administration's point man on Iran policy, has suggested the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in late September will be critical date, according to diplomats he has briefed on U.S. plans.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told lawmakers this past Wednesday that "the strategy which we are laying out does have a time frame" when "we either see some openness and some willingness to engage on this very important issue with us or we don't."
The administration has not set a definitive deadline, said a senior official who spoke anonymously in order to describe the planning.
Experts say the United States has limited time.
"The administration can afford to wait, but it is not a clock that is going to tick forever because of the Israelis," said Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast peace negotiator now at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Public Policy. "The administration is going to have to try to impose some sense of urgency on this."
The U.S. is laying the groundwork for how to proceed if Iran continues to ignore or reject the overtures.
Clinton has said Iran will face "crippling sanctions" if it does not respond. She and Obama have said international penalties, as opposed to unilateral U.S. punishment, would be most effective. But Iran already is subject to three sets of Security Council penalties and veto-wielding members Russia and China are resistant to add more.
In recent weeks, the administration quietly has encouraged Congress to pass legislation that would empower the president to put in place new economic and financial penalties against Iran and against foreign companies that do business with Iran.
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EDITOR'S NOTE — Matthew Lee covers the State Department for The Associated Press. | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:58 pm Post subject: |
| AIPAC associated (Israel first) Dennis Ross moving from State to NSC
Dennis Ross, Iran Adviser, Moves to White House
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1904788,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
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Ross moving from State to NSC
June 16, 2009
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/06/16/1005914/ross-moves-from-state-to-nsc
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Dennis Ross will be moving from the State Department to the White House.
Ross, now a special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia at the State Department, will take an as yet unnamed position at the National Security Council, according to media reports.
The new job is expected to have a broader reach, encompassing not just policy on Iran but also the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and other areas.
There is some media speculation that Ross's move is due to the fact that Iran policy is being increasingly run out of the White House.
Ross, 60, was the top Middle East negotiator during the Clinton administration.
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Dennis Ross To Move To NSC: U.S. Officials (Associated Press)
MATTHEW LEE | June 15, 2009 05:59 PM EST |
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's pointman on Iran is moving from the State Department to the White House to better coordinate inter-agency policy on the Persian Gulf region, U.S. officials said Monday.
Dennis Ross, who is in charge of formulating President Barack Obama's outreach to Iran as special adviser for the Gulf and Southwest Asia, will take a similar position at the National Security Council, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the switch have not yet been finalized.
The White House and State Department declined to comment on the matter but denied an Israeli newspaper report that Ross was being removed from his job. Ross worked on the Middle East peace process for the administrations of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
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Ross to take central Iran policy role at White House: official
Tue Jun 16, 7:18 PM
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Veteran diplomat Dennis Ross will soon leave his job at the State Department for a more active role in shaping Iran policy at the White House, a US official said Tuesday.
"He's going over to the White House," the official told AFP on the condition of anonymity, adding Ross wanted to move from the sidelines to the center of Obama administration policymaking on Iran.
Unlike Middle East envoy George Mitchell and Afghanistan-Pakistan envoy Richard Holbrooke, who took up their jobs amid great fanfare, Ross slipped under the radar when his post was announced in a late-night communique.
He was also given a vague job title, that of special advisor to the Gulf and southwest Asia, whose duties included advancing the Obama administration's policy to engage diplomatically with Iran.
State Department officials insisted he was not an envoy or a negotiator, but rather an adviser and coordinator of policies across the region for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Wednesday that Ross remained in his current job, without denying reports he would leave soon.
"He's on the job here in the State Department working very hard. And if and when we have a personnel announcement, we'll let you know," Kelly said.
The unnamed government official said Ross's new duties were still being worked out and he did not know when Ross would move to the White House. "I don't think (the move) is imminent," he added.
The change comes as the disputed presidential election in Iran complicates policymaking in Washington, but officials told the New York Times that Ross's move is not linked to those developments.
The government official told AFP that Ross, the former Middle East envoy under president Bill Clinton, sees his new job as a step up.
"The issue of Iran is being handled out of the White House. That's very clear. And if that's one of your major issues, you're going to want to be where the action is," the official said.
"He certainly was not in any way fired. I think it was Dennis Ross wanting to be more in the center of it and ... (the) State (Department) doesn't have the lead on Iran," the official added.
Experts had seen the assignment of Ross to his State Department post as a way for President Barack Obama to reassure Israel of his support even as Washington announced its intention to open a dialogue with Tehran.
He is seen as a strong supporter of Israel.
The New York Times also said Ross may have ruffled some feathers at the State Department with his new book: "Myths, Illusions and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East."
It said the book proposed a "direct, secret back-channel" to talk to the Iranian government.
Ross was the head of policy planning at the State Department during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, and the long-time diplomat also served as a senior-level Obama advisor during the 2008 White House race.
An expert from the progressive New America Foundation, Steve Clemons, wrote on his blog in February that naming Ross as an envoy to Iran would not have been a good idea.
It would have been "seen as a sign that Obama was not serious about a strategic leap out of the current US-Iran relations mess into a different arrangement."
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State evades claims on Iran adviser Ross
Published: June 17, 2009 at 4:43 PM
http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/06/17/State-evades-claims-on-Iran-adviser-Ross/UPI-50011245271420/
The U.S. State Department skirted claims that career diplomat Dennis Ross was slated to leave his job there to take up a White House role in Iranian policy.
Ross works currently for the State Department as the special adviser for the Gulf and Southwest Asia, overseeing Iranian policy there.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz and several American newspapers published reports Tuesday saying that Ross would be "abruptly" removed from his position at the State Department to take on a larger role in Iran policy for U.S. President Barack Obama.
But State Department officials skirted the issue, saying Ross remained active in his current role.
"He's on the job here in the State Department working very hard," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
Kelly later sidestepped the newspaper allegations that Ross was headed for a top position at the White House.
"Newspapers report a lot of things," he said.
Iran has emerged as a hot-button issue for the Obama White House, particular in the wake of the disputed Iranian elections.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory in the Friday presidential contest. Supporters for his closest challenger, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, took to the streets in protest over the outcome.
Obama has embraced a policy of engagement with Iran but has not linked that effort directly to the leadership in Tehran.
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Obama envoy raises possibility of U.S. strike on Iran:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2009/06/12/obama-envoy-raises-possibility-of-u-s-strike-on-iran.php
Dennis Ross mentioned via following youtube as well:
See video: In-Depth Discussion: In Israel's Interest - US Policy Influenced by Media and Neocon Agenda:
http://neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-depth-discussion.html
http://Tinyurl.com/InDepthDiscussion | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
