Baker Report on U.S.-Iranian Dialogue Released

CONTACT: Mike Cinelli

PHONE: (713)
831-4794

E-MAIL: mcinelli@rice.edu

BAKER INSTITUTE: U.S. IRANIAN DIALOGUE NEEDS TO TAKE STRATEGIC INTERESTS
OF BOTH COUNTRIES INTO CONSIDERATION

The James A. Baker III Institute for
Public Policy of Rice University stated today in a new report that the United
States should develop a more “nuanced and sophisticated approach” to its
relations with Iran and that Iran’s national security interests in its region
“must be acknowledged.”

The recommendations are part of a report released by the Baker
Institute entitled “Iran and Its Strategic Role in the Persian Gulf–Policy
Options for the United States.” The report draws on discussion among five
panelists who attended a seminar at the institute this spring. Those panelists
included Bruce Riedel, special assistant to President Clinton and senior
director for Near East and South Asia Affairs, representatives of the National
Security Council, other U.S. government officials, and academic and oil industry
specialists on Iran.

The Baker Institute report discusses the emergence of a more
open, pluralistic society inside Iran and notes that the landslide election of
Mohammed Khatami as president of Iran in May reflects the potentially
irreversible dynamics of change in Iranian society.

But the report cautions that a U.S.-Iranian dialogue can only
proceed constructively with the understanding on both sides that the strategic
interests of Iran and the United States are likely to differ in certain
respects, regardless of the trends inside Iran.

In particular, Baker Institute policy researchers suggest that
the Clinton administration and Congress should permit U.S. energy companies to
initiate discussions about investments in Iran’s oil and gas sector to be
implemented only after sanctions are lifted.

“Such discussions would reduce the clear advantage European and
Russian firms now enjoy in Iran while potentially facilitating progress in a
U.S.-Iranian official dialogue,” researchers state in the study.

Copies of the study are available from the Rice University News
Office at (713) 831-4795.

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