I was harping back to the time when China was unrecogised, and how a simple ping pong tournament gave way to the establishment of bilateral relations between the two countries, and the establishment of embassies. Now I know things in Iran are different, but there has to be a time when the US and Iranian governments come back with some sort of agreement and exchange of ambassadors.
I personally think it will be good for relations, and for the ability for the US to show the Iranian government how many want a Green Card.
Well, it was just an idea floating around in my head, but how long will it take for embassies to come back to both countries?
Iran is posturing defiance and proven to meddle in foreign affairs contrary to US interest. When Nixon went to China, the big issue up to that point was disagreement regarding China’s internal affairs.
You’re not the only only one thinking that Bush should do this. The reasoning is similar to the “only Nixon could go to China” argument. But I’m not sure that Congress would let any president do that. Does anyone know if restoring diplomatic relations with Iran would require an act of Congress, or if Bush tried to do so could Congress block it?
It just seems to me from a standpoint that if the US established an Embassy, then it would at least bring down the rhetoric and open up some dialogue at least, hell, get rid of sanctions and maybe we’d defeat Irans Mullahs in a war of economics and ideas, just like we did in China (Workers of who unite?)
Would it also go down in helping the Iranian Government become ‘establishment’ and not ‘revolutionary firebrand’ anymore? So it would be less inclined to the hostility we’re seeing from them?
I’m thinking of a lot of Soviet analogies here, I’m sure some are useful in the way in which we deal with Iran.
Part of the problem with renewing diplomatic ties is that you don’t want to reward them for bad behavior. Bush hinted at taking the first steps towards renewing relations several months ago, but they balked and wouldn’t agree to his terms. I think it’s better to not end diplomatic relations in the first place, although that wasn’t exactly our decision in the case of Iran.
An Administration can extend recognition and enter into diplomatic relations with a nation without Congressional consent. For instance, Carter transfered US recognition of the legitimate government of China from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 without any need for legislation, although the Taiwan Relations Act was passed after-the-fact to clarify Taiwan’s status under US law.
While the President could restore relations with Iran, anything beyond simply saying, “We now recognize you as the legitimate government of Iran,” would require Congress (e.g. building and staffing an embassy, lifting the embargo, entering into commercial relations, etc).
If that mattered every country on Earth would have broken off diplomatic ties with the US a long time ago. Not to mention that we had an embassy in the Soviet Union, which did what you say and was an actual danger to us.
Didn’t Iran try to warm up relations a while back and get rejected by Bush ?
If Bush somehow negotiated a settlement with Iran to stop their nuclear development program, full diplomatic relations with the US could be one of the carrots offered.
Absent some move on Iran’s part, how exactly do we benefit from opening an embassy in Iran? Let’s remember what happened to our last embassy. How about if Iran apologized for holding our embassy personnel hostage, and undertook not to kidnap any more embassy staff in the future?
Well, what’s the point of sending an embassy to a country that doesn’t recognize the sanctity of the embassy?
How about this plan. Bush agrees to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran. But we make sure to wait juuuust a tiny bit to send our guys over there until they set up their embassy here. Then the FBI marches in, we arrest all the embassy staff and ship them off to Gitmo for a nice long vacation.
That would be pretty bad, right? So why would we put ourselves in the same position if Iran isn’t willing to guarantee not to kidnap and imprison our embassy personnel, and by the way, acknowledge that their previous kidnapping and imprisonment of our embassy personnel was a mistake, and they’re sorry and it will never happen again?
If by this you mean “Capitalism won in the sense that China’s system cannot really be described as Communistic,” you’re right. But if you mean “Capitalism won because China converted its economy to Capitalism,” well, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn the government gave me to sell to you…
