How to lose friends and alienate allies
The United States decision to offer Iran a “new beginning” has created insecurity and fear amongst the United States friends and allies in the Middle East. The reason is that many of the United States allies in the Middle East is worried that the Obama administration will concede to Iranian demands and sideline the interests of its allies.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is currently on a visit to the Middle East to ease the worries of its allies, promising to keep them informed on US-Iranian talks. Promises like this will fall on deaf ears; Iran is accelerating its grab for regional power and decisions by the United States to extended its “open hand,” to Iran and that it is “not willing to pull the hand back yet” is reason enough for its allies to worry.
Questions like “what dose the United States expect to gain out of negotiations with Iran?” is occupying its allies. Few people expect Iran to give up its nuclear [weapons] program, no matter how big the “carrots” that the United States offers are. And the fact that the Obama administration has declared that they will not seek to negotiate on issues of Iran’s support for terrorist organizations in the region has emboldened Iran; New York Times reports that Ahmedinejad states that:
“Those who one day called Iran and Syria part of ‘the axis of evil’ now want to develop relations with Iran and Syria,” he said.
“Syria and Iran have been from the very beginning united and in agreement to stand on the side of the Palestinian resistance,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, adding, “We see that the resistance will continue until all occupied territories are liberated.”
Iran is not interested in negotiations with the United States, Iran is working the clock, they know that the United States will gradually leave Iraq and the risk of a militarily intervention is nonexistent and sanctions wont effect Iran’s decision to compromise. It seems that Iran can buy time just by making statements that it is not against negotiations, without taking any steps to negotiate. The regime in Tehran feels that the United States has no real leverage over them, so why bother with compromise? They expect to do well by following through with their current policies.
And this is the main source that is creating fear amongst the United States allies. A possible source of change in Iran is the Iranian opposition, but hitherto it has been ignored and sidelined. The strength of the opposition is misjudged, and one of the reasons why the opposition is perceived as weak is because of its lack of support.
