Rice: Direct Diplomatic Contact With Iran Possible

Tyler Marshall, The LA Times:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today said the Bush administration was considering opening direct contact with Iran as part of a broader effort to gain greater cooperation from Iraq's neighbors in quelling the insurgency that grips large swaths of the country. READ MORE

"We're considering whether that might be useful," Rice said.

She told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that any such contact would probably take place between the U.S. and Iranian embassies in Baghdad.

Direct U.S. diplomatic contact with Tehran would be highly controversial within the Bush administration, which has long been divided between hardliners who have argued that any relationship with Iran acts to legitimize the Islamic fundamentalist government and undercuts regime opponents, and those who maintain that engagement would soften its anti-American behavior.

Rice's comments came during the course of a three-hour grilling before the committee in a hearing that unfolded in an atmosphere of visible concern among both Republicans and Democrats about the course of the war and a growing skepticism about the administration's claims of success.

Senators from both parties seemed unconvinced by Rice's opening remarks that noted progress and outlined a counter-insurgency military strategy to secure the country while building what she called "truly national institutions" that crossed the deep social divides that separate Iraq across ethnic and sectarian lines.

At one point, Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island told Rice the United States had yet to accomplish three of five goals President Bush set out last year that were needed to end the occupation of Iraq. He noted that Washington had so far failed to rebuild the country's infrastructure, gain more international support for the fledgling government in Baghdad and improve security.

When Rice claimed that international support for Iraq was growing and significant progress had been made, Chafee responded: "Well, we all wish that were true, but we can't kid ourselves either."

In his opening remarks, committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) urged Rice to sketch out the administration's strategy for getting to a point where a significant drawdown of U.S. forces might be possible, noting, "The American people need to more fully understand the basis upon which our troops are likely to come home."

A senior State Department official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, said that the Bush administration has only indirect contacts with Tehran, going through indirect channels and third party contacts, such as Swiss diplomats in Geneva.

The last known direct contacts with Iran came after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan as the United States worked with nations in the region to rebuild the country and establish a functioning government in Kabul. That activity began in late 2001, first with Bush's special envoy for Afghanistan, James Dobbins, and later with the U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad.

Khalilzad is now the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad.