More Moderate U.S. Stance Toward Iran

Re “U.S. Appears Poised to Support European Incentives for Iran,” March 3: The Bush administration is wise to shift our Iran policy to one of support for the European initiative to prevent the development of Iranian nuclear weapons. There is, of course, no guarantee that the European policy will be successful, but its odds of success are much better than the unilateral, threatening and scold-from-afar approach that the U.S. was taking prior to the president’s European trip.

Our concerns about Iranian human rights and sponsorship of Middle Eastern terrorist groups are well founded, but quiet diplomacy is a much better way to approach Iran on these issues than the public denunciations that have, up to recently, irritated our friends abroad and insulted those whom we need to persuade to change their ways.

When we consider the shift toward Shiite leadership in Iraq, our inability to stop nuclear materials being sold to Iran by Russia and how thin we are stretched militarily, a quieter, more patient approach to Iran has much to commend it. In many ways, Iran, for all of its problems, is currently one of the more politically stable nations in the Middle East. If we possibly can, we should be working positively with Iran rather than blustering at it and assuming it is an enemy. This is a time for the carrots, not the sticks.

John Hergesheimer

Whittier