How to deal with Iran.

AuthorCotter, Michael W.
PositionBook review

HOW TO DEAL WITH IRAN

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22271

By William Luers, Thomas R. Pickering, and Jim Walsh

Regular readers of The New York Review of Books know that, in addition to essays masquerading as book reviews, it also carries articles on important topics of the day. One such is the article in the February 12 issue providing advice to the new U.S. administration on how to deal with Iran. Written by two of the outstanding foreign affairs professionals of our era--William Luers, president of the U.N. Association-USA and a former ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Venezuela; and Thomas Pickering, Co-Chair of UNA-USA, former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, and former ambassador to six countries--with the assistance of Jim Walsh, a research assistant at MIT, the article echoes the recommendation of the Iraq Study Group and many others that the United States needs to engage Iran directly and without preconditions.

As with the authors' earlier article in The New York Review, which addressed specifically Iran's nuclear aspirations (March 20, 2008), in this effort the authors focus on the broader regional issues in which Iran and the United States have equally important interests: Iraq and Afghanistan. It is clear, they argue, that to bring stability to those countries as well as to resolve the nuclear issue there will have to be direct talks between the United States and Iran as...

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