U.S. should engage in creative diplomacy with Iran

The inauguration of Iran’s new president Hassan Rohani on August 4 opens a period of intense diplomacy to resolve the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program and world powers should not squander the opportunity, according to an article published on the website of the Financial Times on Sunday.
Following are excerpts of the text of the article:

The goal of western policy over the next few months must be to avoid pushing Mr. Rohani into a corner. This is the time for the U.S. to engage in creative diplomacy with Iran, diplomacy which has three key elements.

First, the U.S. must resist adding more economic sanctions to those in existence. Legislation currently before Congress would go even further, however, and impose a blanket oil embargo at the start of next year. This must be averted.

Second, the U.S. and its allies should reconsider their current offer to Iran. In the past 12 months, the U.S. has tried to get Tehran to sign up to an early confidence-building deal. This would see Iran shut down its second enrichment site at Fordo; stop production of highly enriched uranium; and ship existing stockpiles of highly enriched uranium out of the country. In return, the U.S. and its allies are offering Iran a modest peeling back of existing sanctions.

The west should revise its approach and ask “more for more”. It should extend its demands to require that Iran freeze its centrifuge installation and allow intrusive inspections of its nuclear program. In return, it should offer a much more substantial reversal of the banking and energy sanctions in place. It should also nod to the idea that Iran will end this entire negotiation with some limited right to enrich uranium.

Third, it is time for the U.S. and Iran to forge a direct bilateral relationship. Thus far Iran has been negotiating with a forum of six world powers including China and Russia. The time is ripe for direct diplomatic contact between Washington and Tehran. The U.S. should use such an opportunity to sound out Iran on regional security – notably in relation to Syria. But a deal on the nuclear file should not be dependent on progress here.

Mr. Rohani’s inauguration opens a period of intense diplomacy over the next 12 months in which a nuclear deal should be pursued. His appointment signals that the Iranian people want the country to go in a new direction. The U.S. and the five other world powers should stay united and tough in their demands. But they must not squander the opportunity that Mr. Rohani’s election now provides.