Obama Administration Has First Face-to-Face Contact With Iran

By MARK LANDLER

THE HAGUE — It was brief, it was unscheduled and it was not substantive, but a meeting Tuesday between Richard C. Holbrooke, a presidential envoy, and an Iranian diplomat marked the first face-to-face encounter between the Obama administration and the government of Iran.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed that Mr. Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, greeted Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, on the sidelines of a major conference here devoted to Afghanistan.

“It was cordial, unplanned and they agreed to stay in touch,” Mrs. Clinton said to reporters at the end of the conference. “I myself did not have any direct contact with the Iranian delegation.”

Mrs. Clinton also said the United States handed the Iranian delegation a letter requesting its intercession in the cases of two American citizens who are being held in Iran and another who is missing.

These two American contacts with Iran are another step in the Obama administration’s policy of engagement. It is a tentative process, in which the White House makes symbolic gestures, like President Obama’s recent video greeting to the Iranian people and government for their New Year, while continuing to formulate its longer-term strategy.

Some officials, including Mrs. Clinton, are skeptical that Iran’s leaders will ever embrace the American overtures. But reaching out, analysts say, keeps Iran on the defensive by demonstrating to the Europeans, the Russians and others that the United States is sincerely trying. And talking about Afghanistan is easier than confronting more divisive issues, especially Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

For weeks, American officials regarded this conference as a good place to make a move. The delivery of the letter, along with Mr. Holbrooke’s greeting during a lunch break, suggested that the encounter was less than pure serendipity.

Mrs. Clinton also reacted warmly to remarks delivered by Mr. Akhondzadeh about what Iran would do to aid reconstruction in Afghanistan and to cooperate in regional efforts to crack down on the booming Afghan drug trade, which is spilling across the Iranian border.

“The fact that they came today, that they intervened today, is a promising sign that there will be future cooperation,” she said. “The Iranian representative set forth some very clear ideas that we will all be pursuing together.”

The rise of Afghanistan’s drug trade with Iran gives Tehran a natural role to play, Mrs. Clinton said. “The questions of border security, and in particular the transit of narcotics across the border from Afghanistan to Iran is a worry that the Iranians have, which we share,” she said.

Iran cooperated with the United States on Afghanistan in the days after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and administration officials still view it as one of the most promising avenues for a reconciliation. Mrs. Clinton had pushed for Iran to be included on the invitation list for the United Nations-sponsored conference.

The encounter also illustrated the forceful personality of Mr. Holbrooke, whose job title does not include Iran, but who has managed to put himself at the center of the administration’s foreign-policy initiatives.

Iran, which was a no-show at the last Afghanistan conference, in Paris, did not send an official of Mrs. Clinton’s level, unlike most participants. But by sending Mr. Akhondzadeh, a former ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, it was clearly not trying to avoid contact.

Still, the unsigned letter, which an American official handed directly to the Iranians, was a reminder that there were many thorny obstacles to better relations. The cases of the three Americans have dragged on for months, frustrating the families and the government.

“We ask Iran to use its facilities to determine the whereabouts and ensure the quick and safe return of Robert Levinson, and grant the release of Roxana Saberi, and permission to travel for Roxana Saberi and Esha Momeni,” Mrs. Clinton said, quoting from the letter. “These acts would certainly constitute a humanitarian gesture by the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Mr. Levinson, a former F.B.I. agent, disappeared in March 2007. Ms. Saberi, a freelance journalist who has worked for National Public Radio, was arrested by Iranian authorities on Jan. 31.

Ms. Momeni, a graduate student at California State University, Northridge, was arrested last October, accused of a traffic violation. She was conducting research on the Iranian women’s movement.

At the conference, Iran offered support and criticism of the Obama administration’s new policy on Afghanistan. It praised the focus on regional cooperation, but it argued that sending more foreign troops to Afghanistan would be ineffective.

That came not long after Mrs. Clinton explained the Obama administration’s decision to deploy 17,000 additional soldiers, as well as 4,000 more military trainers, to buttress Afghan security forces.

Mrs. Clinton had a busy day of diplomacy, notably a meeting with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, at which the two discussed cooperation on a variety of issues.

For the most part, though, the focus was on Afghanistan — less as a military issue than as a development problem. Mrs. Clinton called for a new start in Afghanistan, emphasizing more effective development and better regional coordination.

“Our collective inability to implement a clear and sustained strategy has allowed violent extremists to regain a foothold in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and make the area a nerve center for efforts to spread violence from London to Mumbai,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Source : The New York Times