A report written by:
Alex Bigham
September 2006
Foreign Policy Centre - UK
This report, Voices from Iran, seeks to flesh out the spectrum of opinion amongst Iranians. In a recent trip to the Islamic Republic, we conducted interviews with people both inside and outside government. We believe, and we felt throughout our trip, that, whatever the style of debate, and however tense the discussions may be, engagement is the only means to avert a military conflict, and an informed dialogue will avoid such a crisis.
The potential crisis that could occur if Iran were attacked has been hideously illustrated by the conflict between Israel and Lebanon. Some have seen a conspiracy in the timing of that crisis. The leaked memo by the Foreign Office's Political Director John Sawers, argued that there was an opportunity to send a united message to the Iranians at the G8 meeting in St Petersburg.
"the obvious occasion to do so would be in the margins of the G8 Foreign Ministers' meeting. The period running up to the G8 Summit will be when our influence on Russia will be at its maximum, and we need to plan accordingly."However, the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, and the subsequent air assault on Lebanon put paid to any kind of substantive discussions on Iran while the G8 leaders thrashed out a muted compromise statement on the Lebanese conflict. Both sides have produced their own theories of the timing behind the attacks. From the Israeli perspective, the Iranians gave the green light to Hezbollah to launch Katusha rockets into Northern Israel, many of which have "made in Iran" stamped on their sides.
This was a deliberate attempt to distract the attention of world leaders from Iran's ongoing nuclear research and development.
>>> Download the report @ Foreign Policy Centre
