TALK IS BETTER

by MONITOR
AT Kofi Annan's press conference during his visit to Israel this week, he was asked by a local journalist why he was going on to Iran to meet a man who had proposed the elimination of another United Nations member state (the reference being to prime minister Ahmadinejad's stated ambition to “wipe Israel off the map”). Mr Annan replied: “As secretary general of the United Nations, I have no other means of influencing people except through dialogue, through persuasion and through honest discussion. And if I am not allowed to see them and talk to them, how do I do this? How do I explain that Israel is a member state of the UN and that there should not be any incitement against Israel?” At an earlier stage of the planning for his Middle East visit Mr Annan was advised by the United States that it would be a “mistake” to go to Tehran; fortunately he took no notice. The Secretary General of the UN is remarkably restricted in what he can and cannot do without approval of the Security Council but if he is to be prevented from talking to people who may have extreme views the loss will be the UN's. Megaphone diplomacy never works but that is what Washington has been engaged in with Iran over the past year. “Won't talk” is not a policy. Richard Nixon was no exemplar but he broke the ban on talking to China with positive results.