Iran Envoy
Via Spencer Ackerman, Eli Lake reports that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are planning to create a special post within the State Department to run the point in doing outreach to Iran. Spencer remarks:
Lake says that they’re considering a career diplomat for the post. I can think of at least two Leveretts who fit the bill. Also? Just saying? Maybe not a bad job for Zalmay Khalilzad, the rather talented diplomat whom Bush sent to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations.
I believe Flynt Leverett’s wife uses her own name, Hillary Mann, but the point holds. I might also consider James Dobbins who was a career FSO but who held a number of political appointments in the Clinton administration before becoming Bush’s Afghanistan envoy right after 9/11. In that capacity, Dobbins worked constructively with the Iranians and the stage was set for a diplomatic opening that Bush, Cheney, et. al. ruined back in DC. Then Dobbins left the administration and he’s been at RAND ever since.
19 Responses to “Iran Envoy”
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December 19th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Perhaps this hypothetical envoy can explain to the Iranians why calling for the murder of an Iranian leader doesn’t disqualify a cleric from giving the invocation at the Presidential Inauguration. Good luck with that!
December 19th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Joe Wilson, anyone?
A nice shiv in Cheney’s ribs, to match the one already stuck in Rummie’s (Shinseki).
December 19th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
You must be kidding? Right? Zalmay Khalilzad was/is a neocon-man. He was a member of PNAC and signed the letter to Clinton advocating war with Iraq in 2000. He should be tried for war-crimes along with Cheney and the rest of his cabal, not honored with a diplomatic post.
December 19th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
You know, I miss the good ol’ days of George Bush, where the fact that I had an Iranian roommate in college would probably have qualified me for this gig.
December 19th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Having met and worked with Zalmay Khalilzad–and, more importantly, the people who worked for him in Afghanistan–let me say that, now that we’re in power, we should mothball that motherfucker, pronto!
December 19th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
And once again – sigh! – it’s not going to matter WHAT kind of “diplomacy” Obama tries with Iran if the bottom line is that Iran can not and will not suspend enrichment – which is Obama’s goal.
Until Obama can explain HOW he is going to get Iran to suspend enrichment – or that he’s going to give up that notion – he’s not going to get anywhere but directly down the same path as Bush.
And Israel is not going to give him another four years to end up handing this over to his successor like Bush appears to have decided to do.
At some point, everybody is either going to have to accept Iranian enrichment or go to war. It’s that simple. There is no third alternative. And no, Iran will not accept an international nuclear fuel consortium without at least one plant on Iranian soil. Which obviously is exactly the same thing as letting them have their own enrichment plant.
December 20th, 2008 at 12:57 am
What MarkW said, with some profanity added.
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