Analysis: Bush's Iranian Headache

A veteran of the Reagan administration and a protege of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Mr Rodman uses the word "containment" with explicit echoes of America's Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union. He sees Iran as an essentially ideological threat, and puts little faith in diplomacy as a solution... [snip] ...Military option In dealing with Iran, the administration is handicapped by its difficulties in Iraq, where the Iranians have great influence. It is not possible, says former State Department official James Dobbins, to stabilise Iraq and at the same time destabilise Iran. There are some in Washington who think that, if diplomacy fails, the administration should resort to military action. But the dangers of doing so are widely acknowledged. Striking at Iran would further inflame the Middle East, cause Iranians to rally round an unpopular regime - and probably set back its nuclear programme by only a few years. "Iran can't be fixed right now," says Jon Alterman, who runs the Middle East programme at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. The problem has to be managed, he says, even if that means passing it to the next administration - and perhaps the one after that. Full story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6944280.stm Published: 2007/08/16 10:58:39 GMT

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