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Negotiating with Revolutionary Iran

(Weekly Standard) Elliott Abrams - Bruce Laingen, the American Charge d'Affaires in Tehran in 1979, was involved in difficult negotiations with the then-new revolutionary government of Iran and wrote a cable about negotiating with Iran's new leaders. He wrote, "one should insist on performance as the sine qua non at each stage of negotiations. Statements of intent count for almost nothing." Yet our negotiators seem dazzled by Rouhani's soft words. Laingen wrote, "cultivation of good will for good will's sake is a waste of effort." Yet our negotiators appear to think good will is a key goal. We like good meetings, earnest exchanges, and expressions of positive intentions. Laingen sent his message to the State Department on August 13, 1979. Less than three months later, on November 4, he was one of those seized as a hostage in the U.S. Embassy. The writer, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, served as Deputy National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush.
2013-11-15 00:00:00
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