May 30, 2003	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 27,1424

WASHINGTON: The United States is sending mixed signals to Iran: accusing it of harbouring Al Qaeda operatives while at the same time offering to continue secret talks in Geneva halted temporarily earlier this month.

The allegations followed a series of suicide bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago in which 34 people, including nine Americans, were killed. Washington said Iran was hiding those Al Qaeda operatives who orchestrated the attacks and suspended secret talks it was holding with Iranian officials in Geneva.

And on Sunday, the Washington Post reported that the United States sought to destabilize the Iranian government as US lawmakers urged the Bush administration to authorize covert action for toppling the Islamic government.

But since Tuesday, US officials are also sending conciliatory messages to Iran, indicating that it’s still possible to continue the talks in Geneva.

“Our policies with respect to Iran have not changed,” Secretary of State Colin Powell assured. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said much the same thing at the Council on Foreign Relations, and to dispel any doubts, outgoing White House press secretary Ari Fleischer repeated the message.

Explaining this softening of attitude, US officials say they still want Iran to hand over Al Qaeda operatives; end support for militant groups in the Middle East and abandon its plans to make nuclear weapons. But before resorting to other methods, they would like to try “gentle persuasion” to achieve this objective, as one of them said.

Recent reports in the US media suggest that although after the Saudi blasts Washington has hardened its tone against Iran, it has not abandoned its contacts with the Islamic Republic.

President Bush’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, who initiated the secret talks in Geneva has kept his channels open and is in a position to resume the talks whenever Washington wants him to do so.

The State Department’s outgoing director of policy planning, Richard Haass, has also cultivated a number of Iranian contacts to feel out the regime on questions as far-reaching as their nuclear programme to the prospects for internal reform.

Haass leaves the State Department shortly to head the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank that has become an unofficial back channel with Tehran. The council is considering forming a task force on Iran whose sole purpose it seems will be to formalize its existing traffic of unofficial and secretive messages with Iran.

Commentators say by keeping its door open to both the government and the dissidents, the Bush administration is telling Iran that a negotiated settlement of its disputes with Tehran is still possible. But if Tehran does not respond positively, Washington has other options too.

To increase their pressure on Tehran, officials in Washington are publicly expressing support for a general strike in Tehran on July 9. The organizers hope to bring the entire city to a halt to show their rejection to the clergy’s dominance.

Some media reports suggest that Washington’s reluctance to abandon its peace overtures to Iran also reflects differences within the Bush administration over this issue.

They say that the National Security Council, which plays a key role in formulating US policies towards Iran, has been debating the two options — gentle persuasion versus regime change — for nearly a year.