State Dept. readies Iran policy options for Bush

WASHINGTON — The State Department is drafting recommendations for the incoming Bush administration on U.S. policy toward Iran.

U.S. officials said Iran will be a leading issue on the foreign policy agenda of George W. Bush. They said the incoming administration will have to review U.S. interests in Iran as well as the future of sanctions on the Islamic regime.

"We have been in the process, within the department, of writing and rewriting and trying to figure out what are the key issues that the new administration will have to deal with," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Richard Roth said. "And each of the geographic bureaus have been trying to put together these lists, and we in the Near Eastern bureau are no different. Clearly, Iran is very, very high on our agenda of issues which we believe a new administration will have to deal with within the first six months."

Roth told a Washington conference earlier this week that a key decision will be whether to renew sanctions on Iran and Libya. The Iran-Libya act restricts the amount of investment in the energy sectors of the two countries.

The legislation is scheduled to expire in August 2001.

The U.S. official said Washington's chief disputes with Iran are its weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, opposition to the Middle East peace process, support for terrorism and failure to observe human rights.

"However, we have not failed to recognize that changes are occurring in Iranian politics, especially, as I said, on domestic policies," Roth said. "We, like our European allies, have tried to view these developments as an opportunity to explore ways to engage Iran on issues of mutual interest and as a new means to pursue long-standing objectives. We have also been able to broaden the way we see our interests with Iran."

Charles Freeman, president of the Middle East Policy Council, said he expects the Bush administration to slowly improve relations with Iran. Freeman said U.S. sanctions on Iran have been largely ineffective amid European trade with the Islamic republic. But Freeman said any change in U.S. policy toward Iran would depend on Teheran's posture toward Israel. He said the current regional tension would probably not allow any quick decisions.

"It is not clear," Freeman said, "with Israel now in low-intensity conflict with Palestinians, and in an increasing state of hostility with its other Arab neighbors, whether Israel will, as it seemed to be in an earlier era, rethink its own posture toward Iran and reevaluate its own analysis of Iran. And that will have some bearing on the posture of the new administration in the United States."

Geoffrey Kemp, a former Reagan administration official and now with the Nixon Center, urged the United States to accept Iran's missile programs. Kemp said Iran is receiving too much help from Russia, China and North Korea for the United States to significantly delay development of intermediate- and long-range missiles.

"We can't stop the Iranians," Kemp said. "They're not bound by any treaty not to build missiles. Those missiles are going to go ahead. We're going to have to live with them."