cross-posted from Dembloggers and A Faerie’s Farthing
With all the sabre-rattling over Iran, it should come as no surprise that the U.S. is now establishing a special office solely to deal with Iran. But even they aren’t foolish enough to make such obvious comparisons to the Iraq campaign; this one is called the “Office of Iran Affairs.” Sound familiar? It should:
The U.S. State Department is creating a special office to deal with foreign policy changes related to Iran and to promote a democratic transition in the Islamic republic, State Department officials said Thursday.
Traditionally, Iran has been dealt with as part of a larger grouping of Persian Gulf countries, but the officials said the new Office of Iran Affairs reflects a growing concern over actions by the Iranian regime and the need to devote significantly more personnel and resources to Iran policy.
…The office will deal with Tehran’s support for groups on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations and Iran’s alleged human rights violations. The office also will be involved in issues related to Iran’s nuclear energy program, which the Bush administration fears is designed to develop nuclear weapons.
Just replace “Iran” with “Iraq” and it’s just like we’re back in 2003. Even scarier: not much else about the plan, if they can be said to have one, is different from before either:
The U.N. watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency, wants Tehran to take action to prove its nuclear energy program is intended for peaceful purposes. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the Islamic state to end its voluntary cooperation with the IAEA.
The creation of the Iran office comes on the heels of an announcement last month by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of a $75 million State Department initiative to support democracy in Iran through intensified cultural exchanges, increased programs for democratic advocates and expanded broadcasting into the country.
When asked directly whether the office is being created to promote regime change in Iran, the senior official said the office is being created “to facilitate a change in Iranian policies and actions.”
Iranian Chalabis, propaganda, “regime change” – it’s the Iraq blueprint all over again. Since they seem to have so much confidence in these already tried and failed plans, can we take this to mean they truly do believe things are going well in Iraq? Did that experience actually give them confidence in their cockamamie schemes?
Speaking of cockamamie schemes, this one does have an added twist that I think explains a whole lot about shrubya’s insistence on the Dubai ports deal:
Several new positions are being created worldwide for the new Iran office. In addition to beefing up Washington-based staff working on Iran, <span style=”font-weight:bold;”>a regional center will be built in Dubai, United Arab Emirates</span>, to focus on neighboring Iran with four new foreign service posts and four local employees to do outreach. There will also be officers stationed in Germany, Azerbaijan and Britain to deal with Iranian expatriates.
“Frankly, there is an imbalance between Iran’s role in the world and its impact on U.S. diplomacy and the resources we are devoting to the portfolio,” the senior official said. “When you consider the fact that you have the terrorism problem, proliferation concerns, human rights, democracy issues and regional development, two officers is not enough. In order to pursue our broad agenda concerning the country, we’ve got to have more people doing it.”
I’ve got a bad feeling about this…