WASHINGTON: Eager to take advantage of sympathetic signals from Tehran in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the administration of US President George W. Bush is signalling back. The State Department has stepped up a formal review of Iran policy under the direction of its director for policy planning, Richard Haass, who also has been named US liaison with the United Nations and countries involved in negotiating a post-Taliban government in Afghanistan.

The choice of Haass to play both roles is significant. He served as chief White House Middle East adviser for Bush’s father during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis. Before his appointment by Secretary of State Colin Powell, he also was a prominent critic of US sanctions against Tehran and the Clinton administration’s policy of “dual containment” - in which Iran was treated like a “rogue state” along with Iraq.

The most concrete sign of a new approach to Iran was announced on Monday, when government lawyers asked a federal court to vacate a multi-billion-dollar judgment against Iran in a lawsuit filed last year by the 52 US citizens who were held hostage at the Washington’s embassy in Tehran after the 1978 Islamic Revolution.

While the State Department insisted publicly that they were contesting the judgment only because they had just heard about it, analysts said the move was designed to show Tehran that Washington intends to improve the relationship.

“The idea that the State Department only just found out that its own foreign-service officers had won a judgment against a sovereign government is frankly ridiculous,” said one Congressional aide whose boss supported the recent five-year extension of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), which gives the president authority to punish foreign companies that invest in Iran’s oil industry.

The State Department’s move followed receipt of a diplomatic message sent by Tehran through the Swiss foreign ministry last week reportedly assuring Washington that Iran will aid any US soldier or pilot who might be shot down or forced to land in Iranian territory during military operations against Afghanistan.

Tehran reacted with sympathy to the Sept 11 attacks. Some 50,000 people attending a soccer match in Tehran shortly after the attacks observed a moment of silence in honour of the victims, and the mayor of Tehran sent written condolences to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the first public official contact between the two countries since 1979. Since then, Iran has offered public qualified backing for Bush’s “war” against terrorism. Among other concerns, it has urged Washington to seek the UN Security Council’s sanction for military operations - something that Bush has so far declined to do. It has also expressed concern that hostilities could further destabilise the region, including Central Asia, and spur a new influx of refugees into Iran.

In a published interview this week, the secretary of the powerful, conservative-dominated Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei, stated very clearly what Tehran expects from Washington out of the present crisis: In particular, the end of its containment policy and recognition of Iran’s security role in the region. “Iran can have an effective role in establishing security in this region, not in the role of a US gendarme but as a representative of the international community,” he said. “We think that finally the US will reach this conclusion.”

At a conference last year, Haass said that Iran’s participation in multilateral efforts to restore peace in Afghanistan should be used by Washington to pursue bilateral issues, informally if necessary.—Dawn/InterPress Service.