Kissinger Changes His Story

From FactCheck.org...

As of the debate, Henry Kissinger's public statements on discussions with Iran were largely based on this quote from a few days before at a forum for current and former secretaries of state:

Kissinger: Well, I am in favor of negotiating with Iran. And one utility of negotiation is to put before Iran our vision of a Middle East, of a stable Middle East, and our notion on nuclear proliferation at a high enough level so that they have to study it. And, therefore, I actually have preferred doing it at the secretary of state level so that we -- we know we're dealing with authentic...

CNN's Frank Sesno: Put at a very high level right out of the box?

Kissinger: Initially, yes.But I do not believe that we can make conditions for the opening of negotiations.

There's also this bit, also from factcheck:

Later, McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, was asked about this by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, and Palin said, "I’ve never heard Henry Kissinger say, ‘Yeah, I’ll meet with these leaders without preconditions being met.'" Afterward Couric said, "We confirmed Henry Kissinger’s position following our interview."

To me, this is clearly in the spirit of what Obama has been saying for months, that we (the United States) need to be open to talking with countries such as Iran without preconditions, not necessarily that it has to be the President meeting directly with the leaders of Iran, and in fact he even said (I think it was in the debate, but I might be misremembering where I saw it) that the Presidential level meeting would follow preparations including lower level diplomacy, when the situation warranted.

This has all been in a clear response to the Bush Administration policy of not talking to Iran period, until they give up their nuclear ambitions. That's not "No Presidential discussions with President Ahmadinejad", that's no diplomatic contact at all.

Anyway, Kissinger has decided that he's a Republican at heart after all, and has decided to take the McCain interpretation of Obama's statements and has issued this statement:

Kissinger: Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain.

But McCain has advocated the Bush line of no discussions with Iran *AT ALL* without preconditions. And so in spite of his partisan statement of support here, it is fairly clear that Kissinger's opinion when not clouded by party line message is more in line with the Obama position than the McCain.

Liam.