(This post also appears at The Washington Note.)
Jay Solomon reports that Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry is considering what would be the highest-level American visit to Tehran in thirty years.
The White House has endorsed such a trip.
This is a good idea – and an opportunity to stem the slide toward sanctions and ongoing antagonism that the Obama administration’s “engagement” policy appears headed.
But, of course, the key is not merely whether Senator Kerry goes to Iran but what message he delivers.
The message should be that the United States is ready to enter into comprehensive negotiations with the Islamic Republic that go beyond the nuclear issue and address all of the major bilateral issues along the lines of the ‘Grand Bargain‘ laid out by Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett last year.
– Ben Katcher
It beats my mind completely why the new administration has refused to engage Iran in a manner which is beyond rhetoric and threats.
In the heat of the campaign, Mr. Obama took a political risk for saying that he was willing to talk to Iran when others said otherwise. He said, “The notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them – which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration – is ridiculous.”
Yet, the president is continuing the same failed policies towards Iran.
A high level visit to Iran with an open mind and willingness to listen and negotiate can easily diffuse the nuclear and other issues between the United States and Iran.
But of course, the powers that be won’t have any of that.
Let us wait and see…
I’d be stunned if Kerry went to Iran bearing anything but threats and bluster.
Remember, Kerry is the one who learned the lessons of Vietnam, then forgot them and left them on the altar of political expediency. He was the one who was for the Occupation of Iraq before he was against it, but merely because we weren’t doing the Occupation right.
If I were the Iranians, I’d keep my hands in my pockets to protect my wallet and take a good, long shower after meeting with him. The man is simply despicable.