The Middle East in the News
•Kaki Elgin, Nov. 12
•Title of Article: Opening a Door in Tehran?
• http://www.newsweek.com/id/167904/page/1
•Article Summary
Time: The near future, possibly
Place: Iran
Key People: The State Department, Condoleeza Rice
Main Ideas: The US is looking into opening up partial diplomatic relations with Iran by placing a “U.S.-interests” office inside the Swiss Embassy in Tehran—placing US diplomatic presence in this “axis of evil” for the first time since the 1978-80 hostage crises. The US hopes to move forward by Thanksgiving, but in the meantime has upped economic sanctions. The incoming Obama administration has not been consulted.
•Your Response to Article: In class today, we briefly discussed the efficiency of economic and diplomatic sanctions. Both of these play a role in this article—and neither seemed to have worked terribly well. In my opinion, placing economic sanctions on a country is just a half-done job of ‘doing the right thing’—it’s kind of like donating $5 to a cause when you could go volunteer. I also believe that diplomatic sanctions are ineffective—how can you expect to get anything done by removing diplomatic relations? Yes, I suppose the goal is to make the country which you are protesting come begging for relations. However, how often has that happened? By reopening relations, I hope we can get something started here.
Another interesting point in the article was that the Bush administration has not contacted Obama about this issue. The article mentioned that not only is the current administration not legally required to consult with the incoming administration, but that it might be advantageous for the incoming administration to put all the blame of a potential disaster on the last administration. I think it’s ridiculous that the current administration shouldn’t consult the incoming. How can we keep diplomatic fluidity if it’s all just a competition between the two? To ensure the best for the country and the world, the two need to work together.
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