Monday February 11, 2013

I've Been Thinking:

Iran has responded to the call for renew negotiations with the West.

Iranians are in mid-celebration of the 34th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. This is a good time to comment publicly about renewing negotiations and other issues of interest. Even Syrian President Bashar Assad took the opportunity to send congratulatory wishes.

Yesterday President Ahmadinejad announced that: "We are prepared to conduct talks but not under pressure, with a gun pointed at our heads." Of course, he then also continued to announce that Iran will be victorious over all its enemies.

The argument about not negotiating "with a gun pointed" at your head resonates powerfully. In essence, Iran is saying: What kind of negotiations do they want, do they want us to just accept the point of view of the United States, that is hardly a negotiation.

The Iranians have thought this out very well. Those non- Westerners paying attention to this conflict think that Iran is being reasonable when they volunteer to enter negotiations as equals, and not simply receive dictates and jump at every demand of the US.

Unfortunately they are correct. But there is more to the story.
The US and the West are now, finally, making demands of Iran because they realize that after years of failed negotiations Iran is steadily marching toward nuclear weapons.

I will say point blank that if the United States wants to get anywhere with Iran they must adopt very different tactics.

Sanctions and dictates have not and will not work. The carrot and the stick is what works. And the most important carrot for Iran is respect.

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