Crossposted from Town Called Dobson & My Left Wing
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The hand-wringing at the White House must be fierce this morning because the Brits appear to be on the brink of freeing the hostages, peacefully… you know, WITHOUT WAR.
From the Times Online:
For the first time since Britain’s crisis with Iran began 11 days ago, there now seems a determination by both sides to seek a peaceful and rapid end to the plight of the 15 British Marines and sailors held by Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Tony Blair’s remarks today in Scotland were very candid. In essence he said that we have a window of 48 hour to conclude a deal. He appeared to be very encouraged by the remarks on Monday made by Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who said that Tehran was no longer considering putting the British captives on trial and was seeking an early diplomatic solution to the stalemate.
It is understood that the details of a possible deal are being worked out in Tehran between British diplomats and Iranians officials. The key to ending the crisis will be to find wording for a statement that both sides can consider a victory.
If the Brits can pull this off, it may chill BushCo’s upcoming war with Iran for two reasons. First, Bush can’t claim they are going in to rescue hostages and secondly, it shows the International community Iran isn’t the big boogie man Bush makes them out to be. They are seen as willing to talk and negotiate. Remember, these are the same folks that made tremendous progress towards representative democracy before Bush called them members of the Axis Of Evil. Then it all went to Hell.