From Asia Times
By David Isenberg

The world has over the past months witnessed one of the periodic upsurges of speculation in the ongoing drama over whether the United States will attack Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program.

Tehran test-fired some of its long-range ballistic missiles last week to signal that it is taking the threat of an attack by Israel or the US seriously. Subsequently, John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, saying, “We should be intensively considering what cooperation the US will extend to Israel before, during and after a strike on Iran. We will be blamed for the strike anyway, and certainly feel whatever negative consequences result, so there is compelling logic to make it as successful as possible.”

Yet, ironically, the George W Bush administration, is, at least for the moment, ignoring the calls of the neo-conservatives, and is pushing forward with some of the highest-level diplomacy with Iran since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Bush is sending Under Secretary of State William Burns, third in line at the State Department, to talks this weekend aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He is traveling to Geneva with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, to talk to Iran’s main nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. The move is reportedly fully supported by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The initiative includes plans by the US to post diplomats in Tehran for the first time since the revolution in the form of a US Interests Section - a move halfway to setting up an embassy, subject to approval by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Iran already has such a section based in Washington.

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