Welcome to Cato Daily Podcast

Daily Podcast. This is Anastasia Glova, your host, and this is the

episode for Friday, May 4th.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke very briefly with Iranian officials today

at the regional conference in Charmal-Sheik, Egypt.

But the conversation, according to U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, was limited to the situation

in Iraq, which is the focus of the meetings in Egypt, and did not broach the nuclear question.

In today's podcast, talk with Kata Foreign Policy

analyst Justin Logan about the delicate relations between the United States and Iran at the

Regional Conference. What does the United States want or hope to accomplish in the Sharma Shake Talks?

The impetus behind the Sharma Shake Talks, I think, was really a belated recognition that success in Iraq was impossible without positive

contribution, a significant positive contribution from Iraq's neighbors.

However, unfortunately, I am rather pessimistic about any prospects for a breakthrough

coming from anything structured in any way like the Sharma Shake talks.

The problem I think is that the policy in Iraq was originally designed with the implicit goal of having a democratic

domino effect in the region and toppling governments, as a Bush administration would put it

reforming the political culture of the Middle East which boils down to

toppling governments like those in Iran and Syria. So if you come to the Iranians and Syrians with the proposition that they help us, help a

policy that was originally designed to have the goal of toppling their governments, if you come

to them and ask them for help on that project, it seems incredibly unlikely that they

would be inclined to do so.

And unfortunately, I think that points to the real fundamental incoherence and lack of forethought with respect to the decision to go into Iraq in the first place.

...