According to a WaPo article, Iran wants to negotiate with the U.S. on Iran's nuclear developments. And The White House rejects the attempts at negotiations as tactical. Read on >>>
U.S. intelligence analysts have assessed the letter as a major overture, an appraisal shared by analysts and foreign diplomats resident in Iran. Bush administration officials, however, have dismissed the proposed opening as a tactical move.
Analyst look at the move to talk with other nations as a plea to get to negotiate with the United States.
So why is it that the Bush administration is so quick to reject any offer that comes out of Tehran, as a ploy? Will the talks be a stall tactic as the U.S. has said? Or is it that the administration is so hell-bent on following the guild lines of PNAC that they will risk a possible nuclear holocaust to achieve it?
The administration repeatedly has rejected talks, saying Iran must negotiate with the three European powers that have led nuclear diplomacy since the Iranian nuclear program became public in 2002. Within hours of receiving Ahmadinejad's letter, Rice dismissed it as containing nothing new.
Others no longer with the Bush administration, see this as a chance for dialog, which is probably why they are no longer with the administration.
"There is no question in my mind that there has been for some time a desire on the part of the senior Iranian leadership to engage in a dialogue with the United States," said Paul Pillar, who was the senior Middle East intelligence analyst with the CIA until last fall.
"Much stranger first steps have led to dialogues than this letter. And as weird as the letter may be, if the Iranians want to begin discussions based on the theme of righteousness, that's something we should not be afraid to engage on," Pillar said. "We have pretty strong arguments about justice and righteousness of our own, so we should not shy away from that."
The Iranian people see this as a chance to change the direction in which the Iran, U.S. hostility is going, and to avoid a confrontation.
"We have not had any relations for so many years, and Iran was always accused of being unwilling to talk," Masood Mohammadi, 23, said as he left Friday prayers last week. "Now Iran has taken the first step, and I hope the U.S. president replies in kind."