By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Asia Times
"During his flying visit to Kabul, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad trumpeted the fact that Afghan and Pakistani intelligence had cooperated with Iran in the capture of militant leader Abdulmalik Rigi. Iran wants to extend this multilateral cooperation to the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking. This would involve closer cooperation with the United States and foreign troops in Afghanistan [Is that why Iran has spent, by its own account, $200 million building roads in Afghanistan?], and therein lies the problem.....
Learning from history, the West can do much in terms of confidence-building with Iran, by focusing on areas of mutual interest and bracketing the hopeless cause of "proxy war" with Iran that, in Jundallah's case, appears to have backfired. Although the White House does not admit it, Rigi's arrest has embarrassed the administration of President Barack Obama by reminding the outside world that the rhetoric of foreign policy change is not matched by a clean break from the addiction of Obama's predecessor to a covert war with Iran......
The legal dimension of US-Iran hostility can, however, further complicate the issues and cloud the nature of common interests dictating the substance and form of partial cooperation. "
Asia Times
"During his flying visit to Kabul, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad trumpeted the fact that Afghan and Pakistani intelligence had cooperated with Iran in the capture of militant leader Abdulmalik Rigi. Iran wants to extend this multilateral cooperation to the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking. This would involve closer cooperation with the United States and foreign troops in Afghanistan [Is that why Iran has spent, by its own account, $200 million building roads in Afghanistan?], and therein lies the problem.....
Learning from history, the West can do much in terms of confidence-building with Iran, by focusing on areas of mutual interest and bracketing the hopeless cause of "proxy war" with Iran that, in Jundallah's case, appears to have backfired. Although the White House does not admit it, Rigi's arrest has embarrassed the administration of President Barack Obama by reminding the outside world that the rhetoric of foreign policy change is not matched by a clean break from the addiction of Obama's predecessor to a covert war with Iran......
The legal dimension of US-Iran hostility can, however, further complicate the issues and cloud the nature of common interests dictating the substance and form of partial cooperation. "
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