KNOWING YOUR ALLIES:

Detour to Iran now Bush's main road (Stanley Weiss, May 31, 2004, The Australian)

THE road to Tehran, US neo-conservatives argued before the invasion of Iraq, goes through Baghdad. First, liberate Iraq, then Iran. But more than a year into the US-led occupation, it is clear that the road to a stable Iraq runs through Tehran.

The theocrats of the Islamic republic can turn the US mission in Iraq into a dream or a nightmare. The dream is that Washington and Tehran end 25 years of hostility and co-operate on Iraq.

In this scenario, Iran and the US work together, as they did in post-Taliban Afghanistan, to promote economic reconstruction and fashion a broad-based government.

Tehran as a champion for a democratic, prosperous Iraq? In fact, democratic elections will empower Iraq's majority Shi'ites, Iran's religious brethren. A federal Iraq will prevent the emergence of an independent Kurdistan that would incite Kurds in Iran, Turkey and Syria. A prosperous Iraq is more likely to repay Tehran reparations owed from the Iran-Iraq war.

The theocrats of Iran can see the writing on the wall.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 5, 2004 8:28 AM