Al-Zaidi Returns from Tehran with No Answers

Detailed summary

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi rushed to Tehran under a cloak of complete secrecy. Yet in a country like Iraq - no different from most countries in the East - secrets are hard…

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi rushed to Tehran under a cloak of complete secrecy. Yet in a country like Iraq - no different from most countries in the East - secrets are hard to keep, as it is well known that a secret ceases to be one once more than two people know it. Within hours, the visit that was meant to remain confidential became public knowledge, particularly after Tehran listened to him but sent him back without decisive answers.

Mr. al-Zaidi may have heard encouraging words from the Americans and offered to convey them to the Iranian side. The young prime minister's enthusiasm, along with his inclination, like that of other regional leaders, to reach a peaceful resolution to the conflict, drove him to carry what he had heard to the Iranians. Practiced in their customary art of patient listening - and prone to over-scrutinizing whatever negotiators put forward - they nonetheless gave the mediators and messengers, as usual, responses the other side had no wish to hear, sending them back with answers requiring yet more mediators to unpack and interpret.

Thus, al-Zaidi may have returned without complete Iranian answers, neither on the external track involving the United States, despite talk of understandings on several points, nor on the internal track concerning the armed factions. It is as though Tehran is deliberately refraining from intervening, leaving al-Zaidi to shoulder responsibility for his own choices, or else is in no rush to reorganize one of its key factions, which serves as the spearhead in any potential confrontation.

First, the impasse between the Iranians and Washington is widening, and even the positive atmosphere occasionally fostered by mediators quickly gives way to disappointment, especially as the Iranians remain convinced that the cost of confrontation is lower than the cost of a settlement, meaning the prospect of war remains the top option ahead of all others.

The second impasse lies in the ongoing dispute between al-Zaidi and…

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Opening of the article, excerpted from Asharq Al-Awsat. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.