An Opportunity for U.S.-Iran Engagement

Three of America’s most prominent former U.S. diplomats are calling on the Obama administration to engage with Iran’s new president quickly before a window of opportunity shuts.

After his victory in Iran’s recent presidential election, Hassan Rouhani vowed that a “new era” was underway, one that would “"follow the path of moderation and justice, not extremism."

"We have to enhance mutual trust between Iran and other countries," Rouhani said. "We have to build trust." Those are encouraging words that could open the door to better engagement with the West, particularly the United States. But what could play a bigger factor than a willingness toward a more open dialogue is the growing violence in Syria, argue William Luers, Thomas R. Pickering, and Jim Walsh in a new piece for the New York Review of Books.

“Some of us heard that Iran’s leaders had hoped their position would be strengthened by the uprisings, while U.S. influence would decline. Time has proven those expectations to be questionable,” they write. “The Syrian civil war has exploded the fantasy that the rise of Arab Islamic populism was somehow a net gain for Iran. Instead, Iran finds itself the unpopular defender of Assad, its lone ally in the region. By sending Revolutionary Guard troops to fight a Sunni rebellion and defend the Alawite (an offshoot of Shiism) ruling elite in Syria, Shiite Iran and Hezbollah have introduced an increasingly dangerous, sectarian dimension to a civil war.”

“For Iran, the conflict in Syria is an added drain on the country’s already limited military, economic, and political resources. At its worst, the debacle in Syria -- regardless of who “wins” -- is inflaming a sectarian struggle throughout the region, and the continuing opposition of rebel Syrians (mainly Sunnis) supported by Qatars [sic] and Saudis, among others, could pose a direct threat to Iran and its interests.”

Rouhani has said he believes the Syrian civil war should be solved by the Syrian people. But instability in the region, including in Iraq, has strangely lined up U.S. interests with Iran, argue Pickering, Leurs and Walsh: “An emboldened Sunni opposition has renewed the violent insurgency against the Maliki government in Iraq, where the U.S. finds itself, for a change, on the Shiite side of the sectarian divide. Like the U.S., although for different reasons, Iran wants a Shiite government with a stable majority in Iraq. Should the Sunni opposition in Iraq become more violent, Iran and the U.S. might well share common interests in preserving Iraq’s stability.”

The authors lay out an exhaustive case for the opportunity for U.S.-Iran relations, now that former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is out of office. Read the entire article here.