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Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari announced Sept. 11 that Iran would like to clear up the “ambiguities” between its government and the six major powers involved in negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Speaking from the Iranian Embassy in London after a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and other British officials, Safari went on to say that he had invited Miliband to visit Iran, and that the foreign secretary had accepted the invitation.
Shortly afterward, however, the British Foreign Office issued a statement saying Miliband had not accepted any such offer and that no senior European official would be traveling to Iran anytime soon.
Why all the diplomatic confusion?
To begin to understand what might be going on here, we must go back to Aug. 8, when Russia made a strategic decision to invade Georgia and throw the West off balance. Iran viewed the Russian maneuvers as a major opportunity. Now that Russia had made it clear that it was ready to take action to assert its own interests, Iran could (at the very least) promote the perception that it had the backing of a major world power that was ready and willing to use the Middle East as a battleground against Washington.
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