The Indian Cassandras warned the country that the world would regard us as non-serious and whimsical if we befriended Iran. They said India’s image was bound to take a knock if it engaged Iran constructively in a spirit of cooperation. That was some days ago, and it already seems light years away. The coming weeks will be interesting to watch. The high probability is that the international community will understand the course correction in our policy toward Iran.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Delhi, howsoever brief and businesslike, became a defining moment. This is apparent in three directions. First and foremost, India and Iran are putting behind the indifferent patch in their bilateral relationship characteristic of the period 2005-2007. Ahmadinejad’s visit signifies Iran’s desire to move forward in its ties with India. Equally, it underscores our jettisoning of an unhappy interregnum when we adopted a neoconservative view of Iran through the prism of our perceived “alliance of values” with the United States.
Of course, one would have wished that the President stayed longer in India and the leadership of the two countries appeared at a joint press conference. But that is perhaps too much to expect at this stage. What is important is that New Delhi has tiptoed back toward the world community, which believes that the International Atomic Energy Agency should be allowed to complete its work on the Iran nuclear issue. The US is finding it impossible to impose punitive sanctions on Iran.
Indeed, within the American opinion itself, there is a growing undercurrent of rethink. At a round table on March 27, five former Secretaries of State — Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeline Albright and Colin Powell—reached a consensus position that the US should open a line of dialogue with Iran. Ms Albright stressed the importance of finding “common ground”; Christopher urged American diplomats to explore opening contact; Baker suggested that the dialogue could centre on a common dilemma—“a dysfunctional Iraq is not something that’s in the interest of Iran, there’s every incentive on their part to help us, the same way they did in Afghanistan”; Kissinger urged an open, “unconditional” line of communication; Powell compared potential talks with the difficult visits he undertook as America’s chief diplomat— “They are not always pleasant visits, but you’ve got to do it.” Yet another former Secretary of State, Zbigniew Brzezinski, is a long-time advocate of constructive engagement of Iran.

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