Hope for a Positive Result in Iran?

A collection of fairly smart people with substantial foreign relations and national security experience recently gathered to discuss the Iran problem. Steve Clemons, whose article appeared in The Washington Note, helped organize the meeting. The session on Iran was jointly sponsored by the New America Foundation, Aspen Strategy Group, and Aspen Institute.

Here is a partial list of those who attended:

Harvard University's and former Clinton administration Pentagon official ASHTON CARTER, General WESLEY CLARK, CSIS Senior Vice President and Aspen Strategy Group Director KURT CAMPBELL, Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School Dean ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER, Newsweek International editor FAREED ZAKARIA,

Booz Allen Executive and former Bush administration Pentagon official DOV ZAKHEIM, Open Society Institute founder GEORGE SOROS, former Harvard University Kennedy School Dean and former Clinton Administration Chairman of the National Intelligence Council JOSEPH NYE, New York Times White House correspondent DAVID SANGER, College of William & Mary Associate Provost and former Director of Policy Planning at the State Department MITCHELL REISS,

National Journal columnist BRUCE STOKES, Armitage International executive and former Bush administration State Department official RANDALL SCHRIVER, Scowcroft Group Principal and former Pentagon official ARNOLD KANTER, U.S. News & World Report proprietor and Boston Properties CEO MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN, New America Foundation Senior Fellow Geopolitics of Energy Initiative Director and former Bush administration National Security Council official FLYNT LEVERETT, New York Times columnist NICHOLAS KRISTOF, Institute for Near East Policy director and former Presidential envoy on Middle East affairs DENNIS ROSS,

Barbour Griffiths & Rogers President and former Bush administration National Security Council official ROBERT BLACKWILL, Aspen Institute President WALTER ISAACSON, New America Foundation foreign policy programs Director and Senior Fellow STEVEN CLEMONS, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democratic Staff Director ANTONY BLINKEN, former Clinton Administration State Department Spokesman JAMES RUBIN, and some others.

The most important point to emerge is that Bush will eventually be given a binary option: attack Iran's nuclear production capacity or let them develop a bomb. Those in attendence al;l agreed that neither of those options is desirable. They agree that other options must be explored and presented to the president.

Either/Or thinking in the Middle East has gotten us to this point -- there needs to be better ways to approach these issues. Hopefully, when this group releases its formal paper, it will be taken seriously by those in power.

Middle East Iran Nuclear Weapons Binary Choice