Re: Is the U.S. headed for war with Iran?

Description: Nasr says, many countries in addition to the United States, agree that a nuclear Iran is not an acceptable option.

Transcript: Well you know the rhetoric . . . The saber rattling rhetoric has gone up, has gone down. But the reality is that the U.S. is . . . has large number of forces sitting in the Persian Gulf with capability to at least conduct an air war against Iran. And the reality is that the administration and many western countries – including also Russia, and in this case also China – have said that Iran’s nuclear . . . a nuclear Iran is not an option, is not acceptable. Now if that’s the case . . . If there is no change of attitude there, then the only issue is how are you going to prevent that? Because the current strategy over the past four or five years has not worked. In other words there have not been successful negotiations. Subcontracting U.S. foreign policy to Europeans has not worked, and Iran has continued to expand its capabilities. So either the United States has to adopt a completely different diplomatic approach, believing that the current diplomatic approach is insufficient . . . adopt a completely different diplomatic approach; or it has to prevent Iran otherwise, which means that through some kind of use of force. And the current trend of this administration, in my belief, is that the U.S. is not . . . never been really serious about talking to Iran. There is talk of talking to Iran, but there has not been really serious engagement of Iran. And when it’s happened, there’s been ad hoc like in Afghanistan in 2002, with successful engagement; but then the U.S. suggested it didn’t want to continue and put Iran in access of evil. On Iraq it has been very limited engagement. On the nuclear issues there’s been no engagement. And as a result, you know, you could see that this administration is beholden to the goal of no nuclear Iran, and does not really wanna think about any other . . . any option that involves a more serious diplomatic engagement. So the conclusion is that it’s probably gonna go down the path of escalating tensions. Now whether it comes to war is contingent on many things – domestic politics, elections, international support, etc. But we’re not seeing progress in a positive direction here.

Recorded on: 12/3/07