State Dept. Talks With Iran, N. Korea Look Like Obama Policy

WASHINGTON July 21, 2008— -- When William Burns, the State Department's third-ranking diplomat, sat down across from Iran's nuclear negotiator this weekend, he did so despite previous demands by Washington that Tehran suspend nuclear enrichment before talks take place.

Later this week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet for the first time with her North Korean counterpart in what the State Department is calling an "informal meeting" of the six-party talks, a negotiating format that has drawn fire from hawks in the administration for engaging Pyongyang.

The State Department has also admitted it is considering establishing the first diplomatic office in Iran in nearly three decades. And an Iranian official disclosed last week that the two sides are considering resuming direct flights between the countries.

In its waning months in office, the Bush administration is perceived to be emptying the diplomatic toolbox in a final effort to make progress on key objectives, like eliminating the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs as well as handing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the next president.

The new efforts have both critics and supporters of the focus on diplomatic solutions wondering if the Bush administration is taking its foreign policy cues from the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, who has advocated broader engagement with America's enemies.

The new efforts are a significant departure from the policies pursued during President Bush's first term, which was marked by preemptive war and an assertive foreign policy that was chided by many at home and abroad as "cowboy diplomacy."

The seeds of today's diplomatic efforts, however, were sowed early in the administration's second term.

By 2005, unilateral efforts to coax Iran and North Korea to abandon their nuclear ambitions had failed. The United States was stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan as the situations there deteriorated. It became clear that America needed help from its traditional allies.