Atlantic writer and foreign affairs correspondent extraordinaire Robert Kaplan made quite the definitive statement today on his magazine's Web site.
Kaplan wrote that Christopher Hill, the career diplomat selected by Obama to be ambassador to Iraq, "is not the best man for this particular job." He went on to say that Obama's choice "may come back to haunt" his administration.
I'm getting a little bored of stories about Israeli/Syrian diplomacy. The narrative is always the same: A top Western diplomat meets with Syrian officials, who say they're willing to negotiate a peace deal in exchange for the Golan Heights. Then, a few days later, our intrepid Western diplomat meets with Israeli officials, who say they're also willing to talk, as long as they don't have to talk about the Golan. Pause for one week; repeat.
I've said it before but, hey, I'll say it again: The Golan is the only issue that matters here. If Israel is not willing to talk about returning it -- something it is required to do under international law, by the way -- then all of this "shuttle diplomacy" is totally meaningless.
The Iraqi government says it released five detained Iranian diplomats yesterday because their case was the next in line for review -- and not because of U.S. pressure.
Deputy Interior Minister Major-General Hussein Kamal said U.S. officials transferred the men, accused by U.S. forces of arming Shi'ite Muslim militias at the height of Iraq's sectarian war, to the Iraqi government, which then turned them over to Iranian officials in Baghdad.
"There is nothing specific about the timing of their release. The Iraqi judiciary looked into their cases and the court decided to release them," Kamal, who oversaw the detainees' transfer, told Reuters.
The U.S. says the same thing; both governments are making a very public effort to get that message out. Makes you wonder why. I suspect we haven't heard the last of this story...
The U.S. military just freed five Iranian diplomats it has detained in Iraq since 2007. They're meeting today with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and then returning to the Iranian embassy, according to Hossein Kazemi-Qomi, the Iranian ambassador to Iraq.
The Iranians were never charged with any crime; the military suggested they were involved with arming the Iraqi insurgency. The military also refused to recognize them as diplomats, which would confer diplomatic immunity, because they worked for a "liaison office" in Arbil -- not a "full" consulate.
Since when did the United Kingdom become Iran's punching-bag-of-the-hour? Today comes news that the UK, in the wake of seeing two of its diplomats expelled from Iran, has expelled two of Iran's own from London.
Khamenei seems acutely sensitive to public perception. I don't think more than a couple days passed between Gordon Brown saying "it is for Iran now to show the world that the elections have been fair" and Khamenei calling Britain "the most treacherous" enemy of Iran.
I still think Obama's cautious stance toward Iran (which may change at a news conference today) is the right one. And it's actually useful to have the UK playing hardball with Iran and putting new pressure on the regime.
