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As Matthew Yglesias notes, one of the amusing things about watching Sarah Palin grope her way through interviews on foreign policy is that "she has to rely on common sense to bluff her way through questions, and she keeps accidentally straying from conservative dogma." Which is how she found herself trying to attack Barack Obama for endorsing negotiations without preconditions but instead accidentally endorsed negotiations without preconditions but condemned negotiations without preparation, which is something we can all agree on. So now that everyone is ready to negotiate with Iran (w00t!), folks should read Karim Sadjadpour's guide for how to think about negotiating with Iran, and what the American strategy should be.
* Focus initially on areas where the United States and Iran share common interests, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than issues with little or no common interest, like the nuclear issue or the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. * Refrain from any grand overtures to Tehran which risk redeeming Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s policies and enhancing his bid for reelection in June of 2009. * Deal with those who hold power in Iran, namely Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. * Avoid rhetoric that threatens violence. This only empowers Tehran’s hard-liners and paints the United States as the aggressor. * Maintain a multilateral approach. Tehran is highly adept at exploiting rifts in the international community. * Resist attempts by spoilers within Iran to torpedo a diplomatic breakthrough. * Pursue “secret” or “private” discussions—proven to have a greater success rate. * Support policies that facilitate, rather than impede, Iran’s modernization and reintegration in the global economy.These are all pretty sensible ideas. Negotiating with Khamenei rather than Ahmedinejad is an option that conservatives have decided to pretend doesn't exist, but is actual central to any strategy here. Ahmedinejad is very loud, but the presidency of Iran is a very weak position. If you imagine Iran as Duff beer, Ahmedinejad is Duffman, not the CEO, and not the guy you'd sit down with to discuss a business partnership. I'd also add that you want to resist antagonizing Iran and getting into tit-for-tats with Ahmedinejad as those will help his June 2009 reelection bid, letting him position himself as the Islamic hero standing against America rather than the guy who's been unable to get the economy back on track.
