...a sequence of events in which the United States had no choice but to join the fray, with Tehran retaliating by striking America's hard-pressed forces in Iraq, launching terrorist attacks against America and its allies, disrupting the tanker traffic through the Persian Gulf and causing global energy prices to soar into the stratosphere.

Or perhaps as you read this review, Washington and Tehran might be following the policy recommendations that author Trita Parsi sketches out in Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States. After recognizing that they have some common interests, including in a stable and united Iraq led by a government they both support, the two governments may have taken steps to a broader negotiation that could result in historic reconciliation between the global superpower and the regional power. Who knows? Perhaps, as Parsi hopes, Israel too may recognize that a U.S.-Iran detente is in its national interest and not try to torpedo it, but even bless it. In any case, Israel may have no other choice but to accept it as one more outcome of the Realpolitik-driven Middle Eastern games that nations play, according to the author and what is perhaps one of the central messages of his study. It's the national interest, stupid! When it comes to relations among Iran, Israel and the United States, realism in the pursuit of the core interest of the nation-state has a tendency to override ideological disposition--whether Islamic fundamentalism, radical Zionism or American neoconservatism.

More likely, as this issue of Middle East Policy comes out, the Bush administration, following a policy promoted by Israel and its neoconservative backers in Washington, will be continuing to pursue its policy of "containing" and weakening Iran through diplomatic and economic means, hoping the regime in Tehran capitulates and accepts American dictates, or that its economic failures and declining popularity cause it to implode--two scenarios that Parsi does not consider realistic.

Hence, it is not surprising that Parsi, the president of the Iranian American Council, has been advocating in Treacherous Alliance, as well as in his numerous...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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