Neo-cons Fine-Tune Iran Angle

[babylonsister]

Neo-cons Fine-Tune Iran Angle
by Khody Akhavi


WASHINGTON - A new report published by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) think-tank purports to show the reach and scope of Iranian influence across the Middle East, but stops short of drawing conclusions about Tehran’s intentions or grand strategy.0226 05

Co-written by AEI fellows Fred Kagan and Danielle Pletka, and Kagan’s wife, Kimberly, who heads the Institute for the Study of War, the report doesn’t offer much in the way of rhetorical grandstanding, doesn’t discuss Iran’s current nuclear programme, and fails to offer recommendations of how to counter Tehran.

But that’s not the point really, said the authors repeatedly during a panel discussion last Tuesday in the think-tank’s conference room.

“We endeavoured to take a look at what Iran is doing, not with a view to figuring out whether the regime in Tehran has particular motivations, not with a view to figuring out even necessarily what the regime’s strategy is, rather just to take a ‘clean’ — if you will — look at Iran’s reach,” said Pletka, vice president for foreign and defence policy studies at AEI.

The report, entitled “Iranian Influence in the Levant, Iraq, and Afghanistan”, describes the debate about the aims and the nature of power in Tehran’s regime as “charged”. Hence, drawing firm conclusions about a government that is opaque and rife with internal schism is “almost hopeless”.

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/26/7292/