Negotiating with Iran (or not)

This new article by Gareth Porter has several important pieces of information on the backchannnel diplomacy between the US and Iran: Iran Pushes for Talks on Nukes, Security With U.S. Inter Press Service 04/30/06.

As Paul Pillar previously reported, Iran had offered wide-ranging negotiations with the US on nukes and the general security issues, including support for terrorist groups like Hizbollah.

Porter also discusses an April 24 speech in which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad again offered to negotiate with the US over a wide range of subjects; as Porter notes, the US media essentially ignored that part of his speech.

He also reports that other senior Iranian officials have taken pains to state that Ahmedinejad's firebrand rhetoric doesn't reflect any drastic change in Iranian policies.

On the April 24 Ahmedinejad speech, Porter writes:

In an hour-long press conference Apr. 24, Ahmadinejad said Iran "is ready to talk to all world countries, but negotiation with anybody has its own conditions", and then specifically named the United States. "If these conditions are met, we will negotiate."
Ahmedinejad's remark, which was reported by the independent Paris-based Iran News Service, went unnoticed in the U.S. media. However, the media did report the Iranian president's statement in the same press conference that talks with the U.S. on Iraq were not necessary now that a government was set up.

Although Ahmedinejad did not say what Iran's conditions for talks are, the Iranian response to the U.S. proposal last November for bilateral talks on Iraq may be a good indication of what Tehran has in mind. When Iraqi President Jalal Talabani took the U.S. proposal to Tehran on a visit last November, in which he met Ahmedinejad, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and other top leaders, he was told Iran would agree to talks on two conditions: they would remain private and they would involve all outstanding issues between the two countries. (my emphasis)

On the influence of the Iranian president on the nuclear policy, Porter reports:

Despite a common view in the media, reflecting official U.S. views, that Ahmedinejad has taken Iranian policy in a much more radical direction since he took office last August, Iranian leaders, including those who have been critical of some of Ahmedinejad's public rhetoric, have publicly emphasised that Iran's nuclear policy is not determined by the president.

In late February and early March, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council for 16 years, Hassan Rohani, stated on two different occasions that Iran's stance on the nuclear issue is decided by the state's top officials and not by the current government. "Iran's general policies do not change with new governments," he said on Feb. 20. (my emphasis)

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