By LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Claude Salhani, Middle East Times

United States and Iranian officials met face-to-face for the first time in 27 years in Baghdad Monday, when the American ambassador in Baghdad met with his Iranian counterpart for a four-hour session.
    
Yet despite the multiple issues at hand - Iran's nuclear proliferation and the continued buildup of US military forces in the Gulf region - only one topic was on the agenda; Iraq's security, or rather the lack thereof.

Commentary by U.S. Alliance for Democratic Iran

The much-hyped talks between the United States and Iran over the security of Iraq finally took place on Monday. A sober assessment of reports from Baghdad, however, clearly confirms the predictions that Tehran had gone to these talks to buy time and to partially ease growing international pressure. Iran, which had to bow to the hard realities in Iraq and to an emerging regional alignment at odds with its hegemonic ambitions, broke a 27- year old taboo and entered the Baghdad talk without dealing with its core issue: Tehran's destructive role in the ongoing mayhem in Iraq.

By Pyotr Goncharov
UPI

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, thinks that Iran has gone so far in its nuclear program that it is no longer relevant to demand that it should stop uranium enrichment.
    
Moreover, he believes that since the major world powers have come to terms with a nuclear North Korea, they should do the same toward Iran. It turns out that the head of an organization in charge of monitoring compliance with nuclear non-proliferation is urging the world community to accept the idea that another country will join the nuclear club in the near future.

Nervous mullahs in action.

Source: National Review Online
By Ilan Berman
A conservative, the old adage goes, is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. Today, nowhere is this saying more apt than in the case of proponents of U.S.-Iranian "dialogue," who are getting a harsh dose of reality about the true intentions of the ayatollahs in Tehran.

Opinion
Christian Science Monitor
Democrats in Congress failed last week to force a deadline for a US retreat from Iraq. This week, it was Iran's turn. American and Iranian diplomats held historic talks yesterday with Iran hoping to ease a US exit from the war.

The fact that these talks took place at all was a signal that both sides seek a new chapter in Iraq.

Open Europe blog - EU enthusiasts boast about the EU's "soft power" - its ability to use its economic weight and influence to influence world events without having to resort to force.

EU leaders also say they don't want Iran to build nuclear weapons, but also don't want to see military action. So why aren't EU leaders using the economic clout they do have to help head off a seemingly inevitable conflict?

The Western campaign to stop Iran's nuclear program still isn't working.

Washington Post Editorial
AS THE U.N. Security Council's latest deadline for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment passed last week, U.N. inspectors reported that 2,100 centrifuges were operating or under construction at the Natanz plant, more than triple the number of three months ago. Iran is on track to reach its stated goal of 3,000 operating centrifuges by sometime this summer; a plant of that size, if used to produce highly enriched uranium, could supply enough for a bomb in about a year. While openly defying the Security Council, the mullahs have begun taking de facto American hostages. Five U.S.-Iranian citizens are now reported in detention, including Woodrow Wilson Center scholar Haleh Esfandiari, a leading advocate of dialogue between the United States and Iran.

By REUEL MARC GERECHT
Op-Ed Contributor- New York Times
May 24, 2007, Brussels

IN the United States and in Europe, there is a widespread belief that the Bush administration has failed to engage Iran diplomatically. Among the advisers to the Iraq Study Group, of which I was one, most believed that the Bush administration, not the mullahs' regime, was the most culpable party in foreclosing dialogue between Washington and Tehran after 9/11.

By: Sami Shouresh
Al-Hayat   May, 20, 2007

After decades, the Iranians and Americans are planning to meet for the first time on May 28 to discuss Iraq, one of the most important points of dispute between the two countries.

The Middle East countries that have witnessed the conflict between Washington and Tehran on issues such as Iran's nuclear development and this country's meddling in Lebanon and its support of Hezbollah, have welcomed the event. Hopes are high that this could be a prelude to a more comprehensive and higher level talks to resolve problems between Iran and the US.