Gates: Iran Overplayed Hand

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is being quoted as telling the Saudi and Gulf state rulers that Iran has overplayed its hand and is becoming a serious regional concern. Well, yeah, but its nice to see that acknowledged by the administration finally.

Gates met with Saudi King Abdullah Wednesday night and with the emir of Qatar on Thursday during a swing through the Gulf aimed in part at rallying Arab allies against Iran.

Gates, describing his message in those meetings, said the Iranians were being "very aggressive" and "believe they have the United States at some disadvantage because of the situation in Iraq."

"In fact, to be precise, I told them both the Iranians were overplaying their hand, and one of the consequences of that was that they raise real concern in the region and beyond about their intentions," Gates said.

He said the Iranians had grown bolder since 2004 "when I think they were very concerned about having us on both their eastern and western borders and weren't sure what might come next."

Gates acknowledged that US difficulties in Iraq since then have given the Iranians "a tactical opportunity. But the United States is a very powerful country," he added.

Asked whether Washington should try to engage Iran diplomatically, Gates said the United States should not open a dialogue with Tehran without first strengthening its position.

"And, frankly, right now there is nothing the Iranians need from us," he said. "So in any negotiation right now, we would be the supplicant: 'We want you to stop doing x, y and z.'"

If Gates can get the other regional governments to assist, a real crisis can be averted. If the United States is forced by internal politics to retreat from Iraq, the entire Gulf region will be in serous danger from an unrestrained Iran. It is in the regional goverments best interests to start behaving as if they understood the implications of the situation to their own countries. There are increasing signs that Ahmadinejad has overplayed his hand internally as well. Increased pressure right now could cause his government to fall. There is at least a chance the replacement government would be less interested in causing a confrontation with the US and Iran's neighbors.

UPDATE: Others: Gateway Pundit, Jules Crittenden,