Bush’s Iran Decision Brings Mixed Reactions
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

WASHINGTON — Just as Senator Obama was in the process of refining his position on the Iraq war, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is seizing on President Bush’s decision to embrace diplomacy on Iran as a move that fits with his own plan to begin nuclear talks with the mullahs without preconditions.
The undersecretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, will attend European talks with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, on Saturday as part of what has been dubbed “pre-negotiations” on unresolved issues dealing with Iran’s nuclear program.
While the Bush administration has sent envoys to meet with Iranians in multilateral settings on their support of terrorism in Iraq and post-war planning in Afghanistan, the president in 2006 conditioned any direct nuclear talks with Iran on the suspension of enrichment activities.
That red line appears to have been crossed, and conservatives are outraged. President Bush’s former ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said the decision legitimizes Mr. Obama’s position that America should begin talks with Iran without requiring the mullahs to stop uranium enrichment.
“Even if this is a one time only event in the Bush administration, it legitimizes the Obama administration to do the same thing,” he said. “It undercuts McCain, and Republicans on the Hill. This is the State Department effort to insure a smooth transition to the Obama administration.”
The executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein, said he worried that the presence of Mr. Burns in Switzerland “could be seen as a victory for President Ahmadinejad and his hard-line supporters. Certainly in Iran, one has to anticipate that this will be seen as helping Ahmadinejad’s hard line stance.”
Mr. Obama yesterday had a different view. He said in a statement: “I welcome news that the Bush Administration has shifted course and will send an envoy for direct talks as part of the P5+1 with the Iranians in Geneva this weekend. I commend our European allies and other friends on this effort.”
The P5+1 refers to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — America, China, France, Russia, and Britain, plus Germany. The Iranians last month rejected an incentives offer from these nations of nuclear technology in exchange for a suspension of uranium enrichment and transparency with U.N. inspectors, who have yet to close the file on the history of Iran’s nuclear work since they began their probe in 2003. Secretary of State Rice has said the offer of incentives only applies when the Iranians end their enrichment of uranium.
Senator McCain’s campaign said that sending Mr. Burns as an observer in the nuclear talks “is a much more realistic approach than engaging in the unilateral cowboy summitry advocated by Senator Obama.”
Senator Kerry, the Democrat of Massachusetts who was his party’s presidential nominee in 2004, said the decision to send Mr. Burns to the meeting in Geneva “could be the most welcome flip flop in diplomatic history.”
The decision to engage Iran on its nuclear program comes as the mullahs are cracking down again on their own citizens who choose to affiliate with American nongovernment organizations. The Asia Society yesterday confirmed that two HIV-AIDS activists affiliated with the group have gone missing and are likely being detained. The brothers, Drs. Arash and Kamiar Alae, were fellows for 2008 and 2009 at the Asia Society. The executive vice president of the Asia Society, Jamie Metzl, said he was trying to contact the proper authorities to determine their whereabouts. Both Alae brothers have been missing since last month.
Also missing is a program officer in Armenia for the International Research and Exchange Board, Harotonian Tazekand. The president of that organization, Mark Pomar, wrote a July 14 letter to Iran’s chief justice, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, asking about her whereabouts after she had gone missing June 20.
The status of the three Iranian nationals harkens back to the crisis last summer when Iran detained scholars affiliated with the Wilson Center and the Open Society Institute on charges of trying to spark a velvet revolution.