arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

TEHRAN TIMES POLITICAL DESK
TEHRAN Iran's prudent stance in the face of recent developments has made it the center of world attention. The open opposition of the Islamic Republic with any foreign military campaign which would endanger civilians under the pretext of combating terrorism has raised serious doubts over the implications of the proposed U.S. attack on the war-torn nation of Afghanistan. European Union leaders agreed on Friday to send a ministerial mission to Middle Eastern states next week -- including Syria and Iran -- to create conditions for a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said.

He said the delegation, led by Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel would also visit Macedonia, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to work for dialogue and peace in the wake of last week's devastating attacks on the United States.

Verhofstadt said the EU initiative was taken in coordination with the United States, which is keen to draw the Muslim world into its declared global campaign against terrorism.

"The (mission) is going to identify a potential peaceful solution," Verhofstadt told a news conference after an emergency summit of the EU leaders in Brussels.

"The idea will be to see what the difficulties are, and whether they can be dealt with. The idea is to create the appropriate climate," said Verhofstadt, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

The 15-nation EU has long criticized Israel's economic blockade of the Palestinian territories.

Verhofstadt said other EU ministers would be visiting the region in the coming days in a coordinated campaign to push for a direct dialogue on peace.

Michel, who will be accompanied by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and external affairs commissioner Chris Patten, said the mission would explain to their Muslim hosts the "EU position on the global campaign against terrorism".

Asked if the mission might also visit Pakistan, which has been trying to persuade its neighbor Afghanistan to surrender bin Laden to the United States, Michel said: "it is not excluded."

The United States has asked European governments to tell Tehran that it is interested in exploring the Iranian response to last week's attacks in New York and Washington, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday.

The private message to Iran would be similar to the message Secretary of State General Colin Powell has sent through the media, said the State Department official, who asked not to be identified.

Powell had meetings in Washington on Thursday with a European Union delegation led by Foreign Minister Louis Michel of Belgium, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

"We said, 'if you talk to them (the Iranians) you can tell them what we said in public -- that we found their statements interesting and are willing to explore them. But we would expect a commitment against all terrorism, not just some of it,'" the official said.

The official said he was not aware of a separate message relayed by Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests in Tehran, because the United States and Iran do not have diplomatic relations.

Iranian leaders have condemned the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington but have also said that they would never allow U.S. warplanes to use Iranian airspace to attack Afghanistan.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Friday that he would make a groundbreaking visit to Iran as part of efforts to bring the Islamic Republic into the international coalition against terrorism.

Jack Straw's announcement of the impending first visit to Iran by a British Foreign Secretary in over two decades has been widely welcomed by the British press.

"Straw holds out hand to Iran," ****The Times*** newspaper said Saturday. Iran can make a "huge contribution" to the U.S.-led international coalition against terrorism "by making positive gestures, such as greeting Mr. Straw and remaining neutral in the battle ahead."

****The Times**** proposed that Britain could use Straw's visit "to narrow differences between us and Iran" as the U.S. is "not quite at a point where it can negotiate with Iran directly."

"President Bush, like his father, can perceive the strategic advantages in an opening to Iran but has no obvious route by which he can turn aspiration into policy," the paper said in its editorial.

It believed there was a "real coincidence of interests" between Britain, the U.S. and Iran that Straw could pursue, referring to the problematic Taleban regime in Afghanistan.

But it warned that President Khatami would "need reassurances that the United States will not rush to install a threatening puppet administration in Kabul." Britain, it suggested, was "best placed to placate such suspicions."

The ****Financial Times**** said that Straw would "break new ground" in his trip to Tehran on Monday and would try to build on Iran's "positive" response to the current crisis. But it suggested that Iran was unlikely to back the U.S. operation against Afghanistan.

****The Guardian**** pointed out that Iran was "geographically and strategically important for the impending military action," while the ****Independent**** wrote that Iran's position was similar to that of Syria back in 1990, when its help was sought in the war against Iraq.

According to the ****Daily Telegraph****, the U.S. and the UK need Iran's support because it would be "the most powerful defense against accusations that the West is embarking on a 'crusade' against Islam."

In view of these extensive diplomatic initiatives, a senior Iranian diplomat conveyed his view to the TEHRAN TIMES. According to this official, these groundbreaking initiatives by the EU signify the great geopolitical and strategic importance of Iran. There is no doubt that Iran's approach to this campaign will play a decisive role in determining the outcome. In this regard, the following points need to be mentioned:

* The Islamic Republic of Iran will not accommodate any campaign which would infringe its national and strategic interests. * Iran's commitment to the principle of independence, over the many past crises, has inspired the Islamic world as a model of Islamic renaissance. * Iran will not pursue any opportunistic objectives in the face of the recent world developments, as it has not done so in the past, either. For example, when the Iraqi Baath Party, which had committed the greatest crimes against the Iranian nation, with U.S. support, during the 8-year war, came under attack for its occupation of Kuwait, Iran did not take the opportunity to settle its score with the Iraqi regime. Rather, it remained committed to the principle of opposing foreign intervention and remained neutral in the events that followed. * Iran will not agree to any campaign which would lead to the establishment of some sort of puppet government in Afghanistan. On the contrary, Iran would only approve of a government elected by the popular vote of the Afghan nation.

This senior official concluded, "The Afghans are already suffering from a succession of puppet governments imposed upon their country, first by the former Soviet Union and later by Pakistan. They will surely oppose any other such government in the future."