In recent weeks, Iran has been busy using diplomacy to isolate the United States in the Middle East. While Iran has been harshly critical of the United States and its planned war in Iraq and calling for 'Islamic unity' the nation has been visited by envoys from states all over the Middle East. After the meetings, Iranian spokesmen will repeat their harsh condemnations of American plans, and the fact that these other nations are sending envoys, with even the most pro-American regimes sending representatives to Iran for these talks, is, in terms of diplomacy, a way of signalling that they agree with Iranian statements. The fact that pro_American regimes, such as Saudi Arabia are participating in the Iranian diplomatic initiatives demosntrates the temper of the Middle East at the time, where it is dangerous to be pro-American. Ariel Sharon has done much to bring the region to the boiling point, with his dictatorial and heavy fisted bombing of residential neighbourhoods, his destruction of the Palestinian economy over the course of the last year, his turning of entire cities into locked prisons, his bombings of little kids who break curfews and the generally brutal oppression that has done no good whatsoever, and in fact the bombings have only increased in frequency and brutality in response to extrajudicial state assasinations, and Sharon's announced policy of 'taking more land' and holding it until 'the bombings stop', which means permanently. Given that as Sharon put it, there would be no Palestinian state (no Indian reservations, in other words), and that the policy is to continue the slow expansion of Israel and the constant shrinking of the INdian reservations, such as outlined in the Oslo Reservation accord, this blatant land grab is just a continuation of the former policy under the guise of collective punishment which is now Israeli policy. Iran has been heavily playing the Palestinian issue, and linking it to the Americans in recent weeks. Given announced American plans, on the Sunday talk shows of the first week of August, to spend a long time in Iraq 'rebuilding Iraq' (a Euphemism for the long term occupation of Iraq by American forces) it is understandable that Iran suspects that Operation Desert Thunderstorm will be followed by 'Operation Plot against Iran', and so Iran has been busy, and quite successful at foiling American plans in the Middle east by using these diplomatic initiatives, and linking Sharon to the Americans, to isolate the Americans diplomatically and in the Middle East.

For this reason the sudden friendliness of the Americans towards the Palestinians, which has come right of the blue, can be understood as a direct response to the successful Iranian diplomatic offensive in the Middle East, and thus is another sure sign that war with Iraq is on the horizon. However, most people in the Middle East will recall the promises of Bush senior to create a Palestinian state, a promise that lasted long enough to get that Gulf War over with, and then went into the trash can, and so this obvious diplomatic move by the United States, preceding another Gulf War with Iraq is not likely to be very successful. This diplomatic initiative on the part of the Americans is unlikely to be successful, given how impossible it is to keep an ultra hawk like Sharon on a short leash for the rest of the year (credible reports put the war against Iraq on an October timetable, which means that Sharon would have to respect the law, maybe go to court instead of committing assasinations, and so on, and just behave less like an oppressive and brutal tyrant for a whole six months at least, which would be hard, if not impossible).

According to the report on this counter diplomacy on the part of the United States, targetting their Archilles heel, the Palestinian issue, being used against them by Iran, CNN reported that "When senior Palestinian officials sit down with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday, it will mark the first high-level talks between both sides since President Bush called for new Palestinian leadership.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the United States views the talks as "an exchange of ideas" in which security cooperation, Palestinian civil reforms and steps to improve the political dialogue will be on the agenda.

"We very much want to see a restoration of calm to renew hope for Palestinians and Israelis alike. So we'll look forward to those meetings," Reeker told reporters Wednesday."

 http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/08/us.palestinians/index.html

The diplomatic plays and counter plays are going on, swirling around the planned invasion and occupation of Iraq by the Americans, and given that Ariel Sharon is hardly God's gift to the Americans, and given the way the Palestinian issue was falsely used to get Middle Eastern support for the Gulf War part one, it is hard to imagine how the Americans plan to out manouverthe Iranians on this one, given the dead weight of history that every American diplomatic initiative must carry like a millstone around a neck...