Rice in London, Middle East politics

today's Post article about Rice's visit to London to meet with the UK Forigen Minister and the Prime Minister. I've copied the best paragraph from the article here. The classic good-cop-bad-cop routine. Hopefully we can transition to good-cop-good-cop and not the opposite.

Osensibly, the talks with Iran are going well in my eyes. What I'm really looking for is the spark that will send Iranians to the polls. As Barnett indicated in his Esquire article Iran could be the largest ally to the U.S. in the Middle East. Once we get one country to first tone down the rhetoric for Isreali destruction, then recognize Isreal and open formal diplomatic relations the rest of the region will fall into line.

As I see it the biggest problems in Middle East are Saudia Arabia, Syria-Lebanon, Iran. Iran in moving in the right direction. Syria is close to the biggest problem, behind the Palisitians, they cause the most trouble to thier neighbors (just ask Lebanon).

Finally, Saudia Arabia, with a Bush in the White House it gives us the best chance and least likely-hood of real changes coming to their society. The Bush family and the House of Saud could really pass for cousins with how tight they are aligned from GHW Bush and down the line. Saudia Arabia will probably be the last in the region to adopt real reforms to its system. The are proud protectors of the holiest shrines in Islam and want their society to reflect the days of Mohammed with modern conviences.

Check out Dr. Rice's visit to London:
Rice: Attacking Iran Is 'Not on Agenda' (washingtonpost.com): "So far, the United States has been playing the menacing bad cop in the background as the Europeans play good cop in negotiating directly with Tehran. But now the Europeans are pressing Washington to take part in the talks, on the grounds that the essential issue is security in a region where the United States is a major military power."

posted by Dan Flies @ 2/04/2005 12:46:00 PM