Feb 02 2009

How effective is Obama’s direct diplomacy?

Posted by Neocon in Foreign Policy, Iran, The Golden Age of Obama

Remember when Obama wouldn’t pipe up during the Israeli conflict prior to taking office? How he couldn’t be forced to make even a peep about the tough issues while George Bush was still in office? How he kept mum about the specifics of the economy until the last minute? He was such a good sport that he didn’t want to step on any toes when it came to Georgia? Oh wait, he was just holding high level talks with rogue states during the campaign.

US President Barack Obama has already used experts within the last few months to hold high-level but discreet talks with both Iran and Syria, organizers of the meetings told AFP.

…

However, even before winning the November 4 election, Obama unofficially used what experts call “track two” discussions to approach America’s two foes in the region.

Nuclear non-proliferation experts had several “very, very high-level” contacts in the last few months with Iranian leaders, said Jeffrey Boutwell, executive director for the US branch of the Pugwash group, an international organization of scientists which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.

Former defense secretary William Perry, who served in Obama’s election campaign, participated in some of these meetings focused on “a wide range of issues that separate Iran from the West: not only their nuclear program but the Middle East peace process, Persian Gulf issues,” Boutwell told AFP.

The Pugwash official declined to name the other participants, except to say they had considerable clout.

“We had very, very senior figures from both the Iranian policy establishment and from the US; people who have very close, good access to the top leaders in both countries,” Boutwell said.

Remember that direct talks without precondition were a mild controversy during the campaign. Obama, and by extension the greater left-wing, assured us that they would lead to productive dialogue and rainbow tea parties. Remember that the root of all our troubles in the Middle East stem from America refusing to talk to Muslim nations and Israel refusing to not exist.

So how effective are talks with Iran now that we’re engaged in them?

Obama's Direct Diplomacy

The proof is ultimately in the result. If this administration will do anything, it will allow us to prove that many of the negative assertions that we hold about the left’s policies are not just straw man arguments. Silver lining while we go down in flames. Obama’s diplomatic offensive has already proved to be a failure. If the Iranians were truly interested in progress or the slightest bit impressed with the chutzpah it took to run shadow-foreign policy before even taking office, they wouldn’t be saying this right out of the gate, would they?

“This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,” Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

“Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change,” he added.

It sounds like they have been talking a lot. Finding out what they have in common. Obama doesn’t seem too confident in the capitalist free market himself given that he’s attempting to systematically demolish it in the name of economic socialism salvation. I can hear it now: we enjoy long walks on the beach, controlled markets… it’s a regular telephone romance, only unlike normal relationships only one partner wants to kill the other. Maybe we’ll all get together after they have another chat till dawn and sing kumbaya. Yeah, and maybe Saddam actually used to get 99% of the vote in Iraq.

Allah at Hot Air examines how this revelation has actually caused stagnation in the Middle East.

Sister Toldjah is just as amused at Obama’s sudden pre-ascension interests.