RECOMMENDATION 7: The Support Group should call on the participation of
the office of the United Nations Secretary-General in its work. The United Nations
Secretary-General should designate a Special Envoy as his representative.
RECOMMENDATION 8: The Support Group, as part of the New Diplomatic
Offensive, should develop specific approaches to neighboring countries that take into
account the interests, perspectives, and potential contributions as suggested above.
- Dealing with Iran and Syria
Dealing with Iran and Syria is controversial. Nevertheless, it is our view that in diplo-
macy, a nation can and should engage its adversaries and enemies to try to resolve
conflicts and differences consistent with its own interests. Accordingly, the Support
Group should actively engage Iran and Syria in its diplomatic dialogue, without
preconditions.
The Study Group recognizes that U.S. relationships with Iran and Syria involve
difficult issues that must be resolved. Diplomatic talks should be extensive and sub-
stantive, and they will require a balancing of interests. The United States has diplo-
matic, economic, and military disincentives available in approaches to both Iran and
Syria. However, the United States should also consider incentives to try to engage them
constructively, much as it did successfully with Libya.
Some of the possible incentives to Iran, Syria, or both include:
i. An Iraq that does not disintegrate and destabilize its neighbors and the region.
ii. The continuing role of the United States in preventing the Taliban from desta-
bilizing Afghanistan.
iii.Accession to international organizations, including the World Trade Organization.
iv. Prospects for enhanced diplomatic relations with the United States.
v. The prospect of a U.S. policy that emphasizes political and economic reforms
instead of (as Iran now perceives it) advocating regime change.
vi. Prospects for a real, complete, and secure peace to be negotiated between Israel
and Syria, with U.S. involvement as part of a broader initiative on Arab-Israeli
peace as outlined below.RECOMMENDATION 9: Under the aegis of the New Diplomatic Offensive and
the Support Group, the United States should engage directly with Iran and Syria in
order to try to obtain their commitment to constructive policies toward Iraq and other
regional issues. In engaging Syria and Iran, the United States should consider incen-
tives, as well as disincentives, in seeking constructive results.
IRAN. Engaging Iran is problematic, especially given the state of the U.S.-Iranian rela-
tionship. Yet the United States and Iran cooperated in Afghanistan, and both sides
should explore whether this model can be replicated in the case of Iraq.
Although Iran sees it in its interest to have the United States bogged down in Iraq,
Iran’s interests would not be served by a failure of U.S. policy in Iraq that led to chaos
and the territorial disintegration of the Iraqi state. Iran’s population is slightly more
than 50 percent Persian, but it has a large Azeri minority (24 percent of the popula-
tion) as well as Kurdish and Arab minorities. Worst-case scenarios in Iraq could
IRAQ AND THE GULF WARS 539