ELAINE SCIOLINO STEVEN LEE MYERS
The Bush administration's decision to send a senior American official to participate in international talks with Iran this weekend, reflects a double policy shift in the struggle to resolve the impasse over the country's nuclear programme. First, the Bush administration has decided to abandon its longstanding position that it would meet face to face with Iran only after the country suspended its uranium enrichment, as demanded by the UN Security Council.
Second, an American partner at the table injects new importance to the negotiating track of the six global powers confronting Iran _ France, Britain, Germany, Russia, China and the United States _ even though their official stance is that no substantive talks can begin until uranium enrichment stops.
The increased engagement raised questions of whether the Bush administration would alter its stance toward Iran as radically as it did with North Korea, risking a fresh schism with conservatives who have accused the White House of granting concessions to rogue states without extracting enough in return.
The administration sought to describe the talks as a continuation of the same strategy it has always pursued: halting Iran's nuclear activities without having to resort to military force.
The presence of William J Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, at the meeting with Saeed Jalili, Iran's nuclear negotiator, in Geneva tomorrow, ''sends a strong signal to the Iranian government that the United States is committed to diplomacy'', the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, told reporters on Wednesday. He insisted there had been no change in policy.
All of the Bush administration's diplomatic partners, as well as Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief and leader of the talks, have been pressing Washington for some time to join in. They argue that the Iranians will take any proposal seriously only if the United States is a full partner.
European officials hailed the decision as an important shift signalling that with just six months left in office, the Bush administration is seeking to avoid a war with Iran.
''We are very pleased by the administration's decision,'' said Cristina Gallach, Mr Solana's spokeswoman. ''It is a clear signal to the Iranians of the engagement of the United States and its commitment to a negotiated solution. At the same time, it is a clear message to the Iranians of the seriousness of this exercise.''
A senior European official directly involved in the diplomacy also welcomed the decision to send Mr Burns, the State Department's third-ranking official, calling it a ''major change'' in American policy.
Dana M Perino, the White House press secretary, said it was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who had approached the president about sending Mr Burns. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Ms Rice had decided to test Iran's willingness to consider an international package of incentives meant to coax Iran into making concessions on its nuclear programme.
The combination of diplomacy and increasing sanctions, including those by the European Union against Iran's largest bank last month, had produced some signals within Iran that it might being softening its stance, and Ms Rice ''decided it was a chance to press the advantage'', the official said. Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior aides discussed the idea as well, said the official, who was not identified because he was speaking about internal discussions.
The extent of American involvement remains unclear. Mr McCormack described Mr Burns' participation in the talks as ''a one-time-only deal''. Ms Perino would not rule out additional meetings with the Iranians, saying it depended on the outcome of the meeting.
Some administration officials have even discussed whether to post American officials in Iran without established diplomatic relations, as in Cuba, but have said a decision has not yet been made.
The presence of an American at the talks this weekend may help quiet the mounting calls in both the United States and Israel for military strikes against Iran because of its recent expansion of its uranium enrichment programme and its unwillingness to fully explain its suspicious past nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In Teheran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, said on Wednesday that his country had ''clearly defined red lines'' that had to be respected in negotiations, a reference to Iran's insistence that it has the right to peaceful nuclear energy. But ''if the negotiating parties enter negotiations with respect toward the Iranian nation'' and ''with the observance of these red lines, the officials of our country will negotiate'', the ayatollah said.
Ms Perino said that if Iran's government rejected the incentive package, the US would seek further sanctions against the country's leaders and state-owned companies.
Still, the decision to attend the talks came under attack from some conservatives, who criticised the White House for not standing by its policy of refusing to negotiate until Iran suspended its uranium enrichment.
''Just when you think the administration is out of U-turns, they make another one,'' said John R Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations, who had been highly critical of the administration's decision to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism last month. ''This is further evidence of the administration's complete intellectual collapse.''
From the opposite side of the spectrum, Senator John Kerry, Mr Bush's Democratic opponent in 2004, said the decision could be ''the most welcome flip-flop in recent diplomatic history''.
A determining factor in the American decision to attend the meeting in Geneva appeared to have been Iran's positive reaction to the fact that Ms Rice signed a letter that was part of the package of political and economic incentives presented by the six powers in Teheran last month.
Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, was described by participants in the meeting as being visibly stunned by her signature on the document along with those of her counterparts. Mr Mottaki formally responded to the proposal in a letter this month, addressing it to Ms Rice as well as Mr Solana and the five foreign ministers of the five other countries. The gesture to include Ms Rice was seen as a sign of Iran's willingness to engage directly with the US. The Iranian letter ignored the important issue of its uranium enrichment activities, but said Iran sought to ''find common ground through logical and constructive actions''.
Under the incentives proposal offered to Iran, the two sides would agree to a brief mutual ''freeze for freeze'' under which Iran would not increase its uranium enrichment activities and the six powers would not seek additional international sanctions.
For substantive negotiations to officially begin, Iran would first have to halt its production of enriched uranium, which, depending on the enrichment level, can be used to produce electricity or fuel bombs.
But some European officials concede that negotiations have already started, and that Iran has successfully opened a negotiating process while continuing its nuclear activities. NYT
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