New president, new talks with Iran?

George Perkovich and Karim Sadjadpour, director and associate respectively of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, spoke about the possible actions that the new American president could take to better the relationship with Iran. Sadjadpour began with a direct call for dialogue between Iran and the United States. Because of the Bush administration’s actions towards Iran over the past eight years, Iran’s influence in the Gulf region is greater than it has ever been, Sadjadpour said. He advocated “building confidence” incrementally by beginning with talks that would highlight the commonalities between Iran and America. Perkovich agreed, adding a necessary change of psychology on the subject of nuclear power from both sides. With this change would come the promise to “take force off the table on the issue of enrichment”, although Perkovich included that this promise would be based around Iran’s continued pledge to the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).