US, Iran have history of contact since cutting ties

Washington, Mar 10: When US and Iranian officials sit down at a regional meeting in Baghdad today it will be far from the first time they have been in the same room since the United States severed ties with Iran in 1980.

From the US point of view, such contacts have ranged from the vital Bonn conference in 2001, when Iran helped to shape an Afghan government to succeed the ousted Taliban regime, to the ultimately embarrassing visit by US officials to Tehran in 1986 as part of what became the Iran-Contra scandal.

Today's meeting will gather Iraq's neighbors and major world powers at talks the United States hopes will yield more regional support to help quell the violence that rages in Iraq four years after the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

It could provide an occasion for bilateral US-Iranian talks, something the Bush administration has generally resisted although it has been willing to deal with the Iranians as part of larger groups.

Former US diplomat James Dobbins had extensive dealings with Iranian officials in December 2001 when the United Nations organized a conference in Bonn that established a political process for Afghanistan after US-led forces toppled the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden.

''I was told I could deal with them any time, any where under any circumstances as long as we were talking about Afghanistan,'' said Dobbins, now a Rand Corporation analyst, saying he had breakfast with the Iranian envoy several times and met with him once or twice a day during the conference.

He described the Iranians' role as crucial in persuading the Northern Alliance, the Afghan coalition that helped topple the Taliban, to accept a smaller number of ministries in the new Afghan government and paving the way to a political deal.

''They took the Northern Alliance (envoy) aside ... and whispered in his ear 'This is the best deal you are going to get. You probably ought to take it,' He did,'' Dobbins said in an interview, echoing an account he gave the Los Angeles Times.

Secret Arms Sales

Not all contacts with Iranians have been productive for the United States.

In the biggest scandal of Ronald Reagan's presidency, US officials were involved in the secret sale of arms to Iran and channeling the proceeds to Contra rebels who were fighting Daniel Ortega's Marxist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

The United States cut diplomatic relations with Iran in April 1980, five months after Iranian students occupied the American Embassy in Tehran. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

As part of the agreement that led to their release, the Iran-US Claims Tribunal was set up at the Hague to handle legal claims between the countries. US officials have dealt with Iranian officials there for 26 years, routinely shaking hands with them and with the Iranian judges on the tribunal.

''We don't generally make much small talk, but it is very cordial,'' said State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger.

The big question about Saturday's meeting is whether the Bush administration will overcome its reluctance to deal with Iran bilaterally in the hopes of bringing stability to Iraq.

It has offered to talk to Iran if Tehran first suspends its uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for power plans or for atomic bombs. Iran has so far refused to do that and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

US officials this week have signaled a willingness to talk bilaterally to the Iranians about Iraq.

Asked if he thought there would be such talks at the Baghdad meeting, Dobbins replied: ''I think it is going to be hard. It seems to me to be too brief an occasion for more than the very beginnings of a dialogue, but we'll see.'' ''The problem has been that whenever one side is ready to talk seriously, the other side either feels too weak or to self-confident,'' he added. ''It is very seldom that we are both in the middle of that cycle.''

Reuters

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