Obama to create Iran outreach post

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By Eli Lake, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The "P-5 plus 1" has sent envoys to Tehran and drafted three U.N. Security Council resolutions that have sanctioned organizations and individuals affiliated with the Iranian nuclear program.

However, Iran has refused to suspend its program. Indeed, two days after the Geneva talks, the head of Iran´s Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, announced the testing of an anti-ship missile he said could close the Straits of Hormuz, the chokepoint for 40 percent of the world's oil supplies .

Critics of engagement doubt that Tehran will agree to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for economic and diplomatic concessions.

"We've lost the [nuclear] race with Iran," said John R. Bolton, a former undersecretary of state and U.N. ambassador.

Others say the United States has not tried hard enough.

Suzanne Maloney, an Iran specialist at the Brookings Institution and former member of the State Department's policy planning staff under the Bush administration, said creating a senior coordinator position was important in part because Iran policy is now subject to an unwieldy interagency process.

"There is a huge interagency component to this," she said, noting that the Treasury Department has been responsible for numerous banking and other financial sanctions against Iran.

She also said that a senior coordinator position "communicates a seriousness on Iran, irrespective of what position you take."

Coordinator positions traditionally are given to mid-level career diplomats, but in this case the job will likely to go a senior figure, the State Department official said. In addition to the nuclear issue, the coordinator will reach out to Iran regarding its activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.

A shortlist of candidates includes Dennis Ross, the former special envoy for Arab-Israeli negotiations under the Clinton and first Bush administrations, and the current U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker.