WASHINGTON, DC – The United States needs a new approach for dealing with Iran and its nuclear programme, concludes a new independent study prepared by a group of prominent US foreign policy and national security experts. The study, produced jointly by the Stimson Centre, a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to enhancing international peace and security through analysis and outreach, and the congressionally funded United States Institute of Peace (USIP), calls on President Barack Obama's administration to adopt a policy of ‘strategic engagement' vis-à-vis Tehran. Based on the findings and recommendations of a 51-member working group, the report states that sanctions and the threat of force are "unlikely to elicit the co-operation from Tehran that Washington seeks". Instead, the authors recommend that the Obama administration "muster its own policymakers behind a package of incentives sufficiently robust, such that those voices in Iran's leadership who might back sustained and serious negotiations can make their own case for saying ‘yes' ". The report's authors include Stimson Centre's Barry Blechman, USIP expert and Georgetown University Professor of Government Daniel Brumberg, and USIP Vice-President Steven Heydemann. The working group behind the report includes prominent Washington-based analysts from the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Brookings Institution, the Rand Corporation and the National Defence University. The study, which was released last week, calls on US and European leaders to spell out to Tehran "a wide range of incentives that Washington and its allies would be prepared to support in return for clear and sustained evidence of Tehran's co-operation". It adds that Washington should signal a conditional acceptance of a peaceful Iranian enrichment programme, provided that it conforms to the international community's demands for transparency and auditing. The group recommended that Washington engage in direct talks with Tehran. "US diplomats in third nations and in multinational organisations should interact with their Iranian counterparts in the normal course of business." Additionally, US officials should indicate their willingness to discuss with Iran issues of mutual concern, such as Afghanistan, the international drug trade, and "the challenge of promoting the more effective use of conventional energy in Iran and the Middle East at large". While acknowledging that Washington should keep all its options on the table, the report warns that any air strikes against Iran "would cement Iran's determination to acquire nuclear weapons, likely end the prospects for a democratic revival in Iran indefinitely, and result in significant military, political, and economic harm to the US and its allies". The report cautions that references to "military options" by US officials will undermine Iranian leaders who favour a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue.
Sallam is a correspondent of the Egyptian Mail and its daily edition The Egyptian Gazette in Washington.
