WASHINGTON, DC - February 27 - The New York Times reports: "The [UN] Security Council is expected to vote in the coming days on a third resolution to tighten sanctions against Iran... [Iranian ambassador Mohammad] Khazaee ... brought up a new report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Friday, which said that suspicions about many Iranian activities had been laid to rest but that questions still remained about the program's ultimate purpose."


STEPHEN KINZER
Kinzer is a former New York Times foreign correspondent and author of the recently re-issued All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. He is on a 22-city tour speaking about the danger of U.S. military confrontation with Iran and the urgent need for real U.S. engagement with Iran. (Upcoming events in Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Washington; schedule available)

Kinzer said today: "Continuing to argue over details of whether Iran is or is not complying with each of its commitments to the IAEA leads us to miss the larger point. The more concerned the outside world is about Iran's behavior -- whether about Iran's nuclear program, its support for militant groups in the Middle East, its repression of civil society or other issues -- the more urgent the case for negotiation becomes. Direct, comprehensive and unconditional negotiations could produce results that would not only reassure Iran's neighbors and help stabilize the Middle East, but also contribute decisively to strengthening American national security. These countries are not only not fated to be enemies forever. They actually have many long-range security interests in common."
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ROBERT NAIMAN
Naiman is senior policy analyst and national coordinator at Just Foreign Policy, which is organizing the 22-city tour with Stephen Kinzer and other experts. Naiman edits the Just Foreign Policy daily news summary and writes a blog on Huffington Post.

Naiman said today: "The surge of support for Barack Obama, who pledged to engage Iran through diplomacy without pre-conditions, is an indication that Americans want greater emphasis on diplomacy. But the Bush administration continues policies toward Iran that accomplish the opposite of what most Americans say they want: the administration sets pre-conditions for diplomacy that Iran will almost certainly not meet, making real diplomacy impossible. This is a prescription for further escalation and confrontation."
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