"Real Engagement and Smart Containment"

First, try real engagement. If that doesn't work, get smart about containment.

The US has not yet tried real diplomatic engagement with Iran. Renewed diplomatic engagement should include direct high-level negotiations with Iran to address all issues of mutual concern, covering, in addition to the nuclear issue, ending Iranian opposition to the Arab-Israeli peace process and its support to groups using violence against the US and Israel in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. The informal negotiating proposal of 2003 (PDF) - a product of Swiss-Iranian dialogue - conveyed to the US via Swiss officials provides on example of what the diplomatic option might look like.

If the diplomatic offensive were to fail, the US could then pursue a policy of smarter and more effective containment coupled with strong, multilateral sanctions. Following a real attempt at diplomacy, the US would be in a much better position to encourage the international community to endorse and enforce a tough regimen of sanctions and other containment measures against Iran. A smart containment policy would include (1) engagement with Syria to give them options other than Iranian collusion, possibly through peace with Israel, (2) supporting Lebanese efforts towards political reconciliation and make it harder for Iran to install a Lebanese government supportive of Iranian regional ambitions, and (3) supporting Saudi and Egyptian efforts to bring Hamas into a power-sharing agreement with Fatah in the Palestinian territories.

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