Is a US-Iran deal on the Middle East possible?

THE TANGLED US-IRAN KNOT, Part 4

By Gareth Porter
Asia Times

"Iran is both willing and able to lend the United States a hand in Middle Eastern conflicts - and with the Sunni extremists the two share as an enemy. But for there to be a grand accord to rekindle US-Iran cooperation, the US will need to recognize Tehran's regional power status and end its fixation on Iran's nuclear enrichment program.....

An adviser to the Foreign Ministry who asked not to be named, because he is not authorized to speak to foreign journalists, told Inter Press Service that a "grand bargain" - an agreement on all the issues that both sides wish to raise - is possible, based on a joint recognition of the threat from al-Qaeda and related terrorist groups.

He added that US-Iran understandings on both Iraq and Afghanistan would be "central" to any such agreement.....

On Afghanistan, Iranian officials appear to view the brief period of US-Iran cooperation against the Taliban and al-Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, attacks, which was terminated as a result of a neo-conservative initiative in Washington, as the template for what should occur in the future. Dehghani hinted that Iran is more concerned about the danger of rising Sunni extremist power in Afghanistan than it is with Obama's intention to increase US troop strength there.

He said nothing about US troops in Afghanistan except that they were suffering more casualties than those in Iraq. Instead, Dehghani made it clear Iran opposes peace negotiations with the Taliban, as proposed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. US support for a "dialogue" with the Taliban, he said, "would be a great mistake".

Europeans and Arab states may be supporting an accommodation with the Taliban, said Dehghani, but the "the real policymakers in the US are not". He suggested that such an accommodation "cannot be supported by the US public".

Dehghani thus implied that Iran and the United States both oppose the same enemy - Sunni extremism - in Afghanistan, providing an objective basis for a broader regional accord......"

This is the fourth article in a five-part series.