What is the purpose of the State Department's new Iran desk? From CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department is setting up a new office to deal specifically with foreign policy changes posed by Iran and to promote a democratic transition in the country, several State Department officials told CNN Thursday.
Traditionally Iran has been dealt with as part of a larger grouping of Gulf countries, but the officials said the new Office of Iran Affairs reflects a growing concern over actions by the Iranian regime and the need to devote significantly more personnel and resources to Iran policy.
"Certainly this signals the fact that we believe that Iran and Iranian behavior is one of the greatest foreign policy priorities we will be dealing with over the next decade," one State Department official told CNN. --From State Department Producer Elise Labott (Posted 11:06 a.m.) But to some, this looks like Middle East Regime Change scheme, take two.
Neoconservatives, like the Hudson Institute's Herbert London, want very badly to strike Iran (I've laid out a possible reason why in this long, but detailed post...) And it appears that the neocons still left in the Bush administration have learned nothing from the multiple failures in Iraq (including, apparently, the failure of Iraq to even appear to pose a threat to the U.S. before the war...) From ThinkProgress:
...The Bush administration this month “quietly orchestrated a major shift in U.S. policy toward Iran,” requesting $85 million for a plan “not just to contain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions but also to topple the Iranian government.” An unclassified State Department cable released this morning offers details on this new strategy. ThinkProgress has acquired a copy of the document, which you can read here.
The cable announces a new Office of Iranian Affairs, and serves as a casting call for Iran and Persian language experts. It states that the U.S. is establishing positions in the United Arab Emirates and developing “reporting” positions in countries with large Iranian exile communities, including Germany, Great Britain, and Azerbaijan, among others.
Apparently, people in the Middle East take seriously enough the possibility of the U.S. launching a war against Iran that Egypt's president for life, Hosni Mubarek, has warned the Bush administration against it. And reporter Sy Hersh has repeatedly reported that attacking Iran is on the table for the administration, an eventuality for which the U.S. appears to be establishing bases, in Iraq, and interestingly enough, in the UAE... Iran appears to believe an attack is coming too, and they have done for at least a year...
There have, of course, been claims of an imminent attack on Iran before, and all have proved incorrect. But that doesn't mean it isn't coming, either via U.S. or Israeli efforts. This is a subject taken very seriously in Europe and around the world, despite the fact that no public opinion, including inside the United States, would seem supportive of it.
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