Obama Promises to Move Swiftly in Adopting New Approach to Tehran
http://www.truthout.org/011209B
New York - The US president-elect, Barack Obama, said yesterday that
he would act swiftly once in power to confront Iran, vowing to take a
new approach focused on dialogue but warning Tehran that there were
limits beyond which it should not go.
Speaking on network television nine days before taking office,
Obama said Iran was going to be one of the biggest challenges his
incoming administration faced. He said Tehran's "exporting of
terrorism through Hamas and Hezbollah" and its pursuit of an atomic
weapon could trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
A new US approach would be adopted, with engagement as its
starting point, said Obama, adding that he would send out a signal
"that we respect the aspirations of the Iranian people, but we also
have certain expectations of how an international actor behaves."
One of the earliest decisions for Obama and his foreign policy
team, led by Hillary Clinton, will be to decide whether to continue
the covert operations programme started by the Bush administration
last year. The mission is designed to block any attempt by Iran to
build a nuclear weapon by breaking its supply chain of essential
parts
from abroad and by applying experimental techniques to disrupt
essential computer and electrical systems. Details of those
operations
were disclosed by the New York Times yesterday.
The newspaper said that Obama would have to weigh up the values
of
the programme as one line of defence against a possible Iranian bomb,
while considering the damage that it might cause to attempts to
engage
with Tehran diplomatically.
Hanging over the deliberations is the threat of possible Israeli
air strikes against Iran. The Guardian revealed in September that
Israel considered attacking Iran's only known uranium enrichment
plant
at Natanz last spring.
George Bush's administration was approached by Israel in May but
refused to give any support to an air strike, partly over fears that
the attack might spark a wider conflict in the region. According to
the New York Times, which contained further details on the incident,
Israel had asked to be supplied by the US with a new generation of
bunker-busting bombs for the Natanz assault and for rights to fly
over
US-controlled airspace in Iraq.
"We said, 'Hell no' to the overflights," a top Bush aide told the
newspaper.
Later in 2008, the US announced it was going to sell Israel 1,000
bunker-busting bombs. Some interpreted that as a consolation prize
following America's earlier resistance to Israeli plans.
Obama's promise that he would swing his administration behind a
more diplomatic approach to Iran has found favour among European
diplomats who believe the west's Iran policy of the past six years
has
failed, and that Obama's election has opened the door to a new
direction. The existing policy of using sticks, in the form of UN and
EU financial sanctions, and carrots, in the shape of promises to help
build a proliferation-proof nuclear industry, has so far not stopped
Tehran expanding its uranium-enriching programme.
"We must invent something new now that Obama is coming in," said
a
senior European diplomat. He added that America's "taboo" on direct
talks with Iran had to be broken for there to be any chance of
stopping Iran building a bomb, which he estimated was less than two
years away.
Obama is widely expected to make a gesture, such as sending US
diplomats back to Tehran for the first time since the crisis of
1979-81. European diplomats have said they are unsure whether the
Obama administration will open a US interests section in Tehran
immediately or wait until after Iran's presidential elections in
June,
for fear of helping the re-election campaign of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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