Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

During the last decade, the U.S.-Iran relationship has been a great disappointment to the Iranians, according to Geneive Abdo, former Guardian correspondent in Iran and a current Fellow member of The Century Foundation, which hosted a panelist discussion on the "Escalating Pressures on Iran". “For 30 years U.S. administrations have sanctioned Iran, isolated Iran, condemned Iran...,” said Abdo.

The panel focused on issues on how to develop a better approach involving issues with Iran, which includes nuclear programs and Iranian regime shifting. According to Abdo, Hezbollah's and Hamas's influence are growing stronger in the Middle-East region, which indicate that United States policies are failing in that area, a reason for the United States to change how to "talk" with Iran. Abdo highlighted that U.S. will be unable to achieve its objectives in Iraq and Afghanistan without co-operation from Iran.

Samuel Gardiner, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and author of the book Dangerous and Getting more Dangerous: The Delicate Situation between the United States and Iran, stated that Iran most likely does not want nuclear powers to aim at the United States nor potential neighboring countries, but simply to protect their own national security interests. “The Iranian regime is not suicidal,” said Gardiner.

The panel agreed that when speaking of nuclear weapons, the United States cannot exclude military action from the agenda. According to Gardiner, unofficially, it seems like U.S. current foreign policy on Iran is centered around overthrowing the Iranian government. "Yes, we can strike the nuclear facilities and yes, we can do serious damage, the problem is that we will have to deal with the response,” Gardiner said. “How do we deal with the response?”.

Gardiner said that those who pose a threat, when speaking on how to approach the Iran issue is not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad anymore, but the supreme leaders and spiritual leaders in Iran.

According to Hillary Mann Leverett, (CEO of Stratega (Strategic Energy and Global Analysis) and former Director of Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs National Security Council, both sides need to compromise if they are to succeed in developing a comprehensive approach to their policies. Leverett highlighted that reserving Iran's security interests is an important point for them to be able to succeed with a relationship involving the United States. She also noted that it is going to be difficult, for the United States to take regime change off the table.