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Washington shows signs of softer stance on Iran

Guy Dinmore in Washington
May 12 2004
Financial Times, UK

US policy towards Iran may be shifting to a less confrontational approach as the Bush administration is driven by the crisis in Iraq to consider more engagement with Tehran's clerical regime, according to analysts and former officials.

But diplomats cautioned that hardliners in the Bush administration were resisting "realists" advocating a more pragmatic approach.

Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state, said there was a "condominium" of thought that Iran was "not intent on stirring things up in the south", around the holy Shia cities of Najaf and Karbala, and risk increasing the US military presence there.

"They have been, I think, relatively helpful," Mr Armitage, regarded as a "realist" in the administration, told the Financial Times.

The State Department told Iran last month to act constructively in Iraq as a foreign ministry delegation arrived in Baghdad to meet US and UK officials in the Coalition Provisional Authority. But at the same time, according to the State Department, Washington rejected an Iranian offer to mediate with Moqtada al-Sadr, the cleric who has led a revolt against US forces.

The assessment of Mr Armitage is at odds with that of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary who has been highly critical of Iran, accusing it of being "unhelpful" and "meddling".

Such differing views reflect a divergence within the Bush administration over whether to engage the clerical regime in Tehran or try to change it.

According to one former official with ties to the White House, John Negroponte, designated as US ambassador to Iraq, has advised the administration not to antagonise Iran during the critical period of returning sovereignty to Baghdad and preparing for elections.

This was denied by a US official in New York, where Mr Negroponte is envoy to the United Nations. "Nothing could be further from the truth," he said. Asked if Mr Negroponte would maintain contacts with Iranian officials in Baghdad already established through the Coalition Provisional Authority, the official said that was a "non-issue".

Mr Negroponte is said to have developed a good relationship with Iran's ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif, and has impressed upon the White House the need for Iran's help in dealing with Iraq.

A year ago the US broke off talks with Iran, accusing Tehran of sheltering al-Qaeda activists who had planned bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

On the nuclear issue, differences within the Bush administration are less acute. There is scepticism that Iran intends to abide by its international obligations as it advances the technology needed to develop nuclear weapons.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1083180459922

Israel dismisses reported finding of Ron Arad's grave

By Yossi Melman and Yoav Stern
Thu., May 13, 2004
Haartez Int'l, Israel

Israel has not received any new information about missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's communications adviser, Assi Shariv, said last night. He was responding to an article published yesterday in Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a London-based Arabic daily, which said that Arad's grave had been found.

Arad has been missing since he bailed out from his plane over Lebanon in 1986.

"To the best of our knowledge, the Germans, who have been mediating in this matter, have also received no information or details that would attest to Ron Arad's fate," Shariv said.

The Al-Sharq al-Awsat report said that Arad's grave had been located in Nabi Sheit, west of Beirut, following intensive searches by Hezbollah over the last two months, and that a bone from the body buried there had been given to German mediator Ernst Uhrlau for tests to determine whether it really belongs to Arad. The article added that Hezbollah expects an answer to this question from Israel by the end of the week.

Shariv said that Israel was unaware of any such development. Nevertheless, government sources said, contacts with the German mediator are continuing, and "there have been some developments" in recent weeks - namely, the fact that Hezbollah appears to be making serious efforts to obtain information about Arad.

Over the last few weeks, several Lebanese media outlets have run stories attributed to Hezbollah sources that said that information regarding Arad had been uncovered. This spate of reports is seen as being tied to this week's elections in Lebanon.

Israel has promised to release jailed Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar in exchange for substantive information on Arad's fate. Kuntar took part in a 1974 terror attack in northern Israel that left four Israelis dead.

Israel may free additional Arab prisoners for the return of Arad or his body. Hezbollah, according to these sources, wants to be seen as making progress in the battle for the release of Kuntar and other Arabs imprisoned in Israel to improve its electoral chances.

Rumors that Arad had been held and eventually killed in Nabi Sheit have been circulating in Lebanon since the late 1980s. Israel, however, believes that Arad was sold to Iran's Revolutionary Guards by his Lebanese captors while still alive, and Israeli intelligence and defense officials said that another purpose of the recent spate of media reports is to try to remove Iran from the picture. Iran is Hezbollah's patron, but Israel believes that it will not give Hezbollah any information on Arad unless it can plausibly deny any involvement in the affair.

The Al-Sharq al-Awsat report said that Arad was killed by his captors in 1988 in retaliation for an Israel Defense Forces operation in Lebanon that killed 18 Lebanese fighters, including relatives of Arad's guards. Throughout the ensuing years, the report continued, Hezbollah was unable to locate these guards, "for reasons that are unclear," but it finally did so last week.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/426852.html