Interview With The President

David Ignatius of the Washington Post had the opportunity to sit down and talk one-on-one with President Bush about Iran. The interview is an important one, in that it basically deflates most of the accusations swirling around the Bush administration and the plans for what to do about Iran. Bush is trying, quite hard, to find a diplomatic solution and not trying to rush to war.

Bush's comments were a clear public signal of the administration's strategy in the confrontation over Iran's nuclear program. In recent days, the Washington rumor mill has been bubbling with talk that the administration is planning military options for dealing with the crisis, perhaps in the near term. But Bush's remarks went in a different direction. His stress was on reassuring Iran that the United States recognizes its ambitions to be an advanced nation, with a robust civilian nuclear power program and a role in shaping the Middle East commensurate with its size and power. The red lines for America involve nuclear weapons, military threats to Israel or the United States, and Iran's links to terrorist groups.

Bush's comments tracked the offer the United States and its allies have made to Iran if it agrees to suspend its enrichment of uranium. He proposed that the West supply enriched uranium to Iran and other countries, and collect the nuclear waste. He argued that this global program "would be a solution that would answer a deep desire from the Iranian people to have a nuclear power industry."

On Iraq, Bush said Maliki's visit to Tehran was "aimed at convincing the Iranians that a stable Iraq is in their interest. They have said so many times, and I think Prime Minister Maliki is now attempting to find out what that means, and how the Iraqi government can work with the Iranians to create a sense of stability."

The administration appears to be doing two things here. It is trying to get word out to the critics of the administration that he is not planning a war anytime soon. More importantly, he is using Ignatius as a conduit to Iran and its leadership, knowing that the reporter has numerous contacts in Tehran. He clearly hasn't ruled anything out, but he has made it abundantly clear where the red lines are.