The Washington Post reports, via AP‘s Nasser Karimi:
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s president on Sunday endorsed the idea of new talks with the international community over his country’s nuclear program, while warning that negotiations would fail if the West does not clearly come out against Israel’s suspected nuclear arsenal.
[...] In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said it was up to Iran to set a date.
“Iran says it is ready to talk,” Crowley said. “Now it needs to commit to a date. Iran knows the phone number. We are awaiting Iran’s formal response.”
The blog of neocon pundit David Frum excerpted a CNN report under the headline “Iran won’t budge on nukes.” Part of the FrumForum’s excerpt read:
Ahmadinejad said that Iran is ready to hold talks, but warned that his country won’t yield any of its international rights to peaceful nuclear energy development, according to the reports.
As a non-nuclear signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is entitled to domestic nuclear enrichment and energy.
]]>Guardiano, a contributor to neoconservative blogs and former Marine, derides Donilon’s ability to competently focus on Iran:
Donilon may not know [...]]]>
Guardiano, a contributor to neoconservative blogs and former Marine, derides Donilon’s ability to competently focus on Iran:
Donilon may not know much, but he possesses the surefire cockiness of a lifelong pol; and he is determined to set policymaking in a far-left direction.
Thus, according to the New York Times, Donilon “has urged what he calls a ‘rebalancing’ of American foreign policy to rapidly disengage American forces in Iraq and to focus more on China, Iran and other emerging challenges.”
But of course, China isn’t killing our soldiers and Marines; Iraqi Islamic extremists are. Iran also has American blood on its hand; however, there is absolutely no reason to think that Donilon has even the foggiest notion about how to address this problem. And, if the past is prologue — and it is — his dovish instincts are not reassuring; they are cause for alarm.
Other publications and journalists think little will change.
Ben Smith, Glenn Thrush, and Laura Rozen write at Politico:
Former and current administration officials say that that Jones’s long-anticipated departure won’t have much impact because Donilon and National Security Council chief of staff Denis McDonough — who has just been elevated to Donilon’s old job — were running things anyway.
At Slate, Fred Kaplan added that “Donilon has been de facto national security adviser for many months now, while Jones has been, to a startling degree, a West Wing wallflower.”
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