Where Iran Fits in the Mideast Peace Puzzle

Where Iran Fits in the Mideast Peace Puzzle

Analysis by Helena Cobban*

ANKARA, Turkey, May 29 (IPS) - What is the relationship between the United States’ policy towards Iran and its performance on Arab-Israeli peacemaking, including the crucial quest for peace between Israel and the Palestinians?
This quest took on new urgency after Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas had his first visit with Pres. Barack Obama in Washington on Thursday. After the meeting, Obama told reporters that "time is of the essence" regarding ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The question of the linkage between the Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy and Washington’s Iran policy assumed new importance this week after Israeli reporter Yossi Melman reported that Dennis Ross, the State Department’s special adviser on Iran, has co-authored a book, due out next month, that scoffs at "the idea that if only the Palestinian conflict were solved, all other Middle East conflicts would melt away" - which was how the two writers defined the ‘linkage’ argument.

Melman observed that it was strange that a man holding those views should be working for a U.S. administration that has made linkage between Iran policy and Israeli-Arab peacemaking a centrepiece of its Middle East policy.

For example, right after his May 18 meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pres. Obama said, "To the extent that we can make peace... between the Palestinians and the Israelis, then I actually think it strengthens our hand in the international community in dealing with a potential Iranian threat."

For his part, Netanyahu seems to hate the idea that any such linkage exists, since that would imply that Israel should engage seriously with the Palestinians if it wants to win full U.S. support for the confrontational policy he favours towards Iran. At that same May 18 press event, Netanyahu said defiantly, "There isn’t a policy linkage, and that’s what I hear the president saying, and that’s what I’m saying too."

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I can't fathom how Dennis can be an envoy to the Middle East when he is not even trusted by his colleagues in the State Department....rumor has it he's a Mossad agent.