Posted on 01/30/2008 9:10:15 PM PST by nuconvert
White House Criticizes Envoy Over Iran
January 30, 2008
The New York Times
Helene Cooper
WASHINGTON -- White House officials expressed anger on Tuesday about an appearance in which the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, sat beside the Iranian foreign minister at a panel of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday.
The United States does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, and the Bush administration has limited its official high-level dealings with Iran to discussions about Iraq, primarily in Baghdad. Administration officials said that Mr. Khalilzad’s appearance beside Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Davos at a panel on Iranian foreign policy surprised senior Bush administration officials, who became aware that Mr. Khalilzad had appeared with Mr. Mottaki only when a video of the discussion appeared on YouTube on Tuesday.
Mr. Khalilzad was still in Europe and could not be reached for comment. His spokesman, Richard A. Grenell, characterized Mr. Khalilzad’s appearance beside Mr. Mottaki as “just a multilateral conversation with the moderator.”
“There was no separate meeting or separate conversation or handshake with the Iranian foreign minister,” Mr. Grenell said. But administration officials said that White House officials, in particular, were angry about the episode. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal administration affairs.
The in-fighting reflects continuing disagreements within the Bush administration about how to deal with Iran, and just where to draw the line on engaging its nemesis, particularly when the administration’s Iran policy appears to be in disarray. Many State Department officials say privately that they think the administration should directly engage Iran, and without preconditions, a view that is not shared by the White House.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"What does Iran want?" "It looks at the minimum that Iran is seeking regional preeminence. That it is helping groups that are working against stability and success of states in the area. If you look at ...Afghanistan...Iraq...Lebanon...Israel/Palestine...although Iranian statements are often reasonable, Iranian practices are at odds with those statements."
Khalilzad was good. The moderator was a liberal who made a crack at the beginning about Khalilzad (fortunately) not being John Bolton.
YouTube put a lock on the video
Where the heck does this President get the bizzare idea that he has anything to do with foreign policy? Doesn’t he know that the State Department is in charge? sarc/off
>>Khalilzad never looked at the Iranian Foreign Minister. He directed his comments to the moderator and the audience.<<
It doesn’t matter. There are many subtle yet meaningful aspects of diplomatic protocol down to who sits where at the table which must be observed by members of the Foreign Service. After all these years the Bush administration still has not gained control of the State Department. His tossing of Bolton under the bus was his admission of that fact.
In this day and age, we do not need a Department of State. Fire them all. The president can pick up a phone anytime he wants.
The worst part about this isn’t his being on this panel, but that this story made it to the NY Times.
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