The new policy comes at a time when the U.S. and Iran are already colliding on several fronts.
Washington has been the primary force behind a diplomatic effort that last month led the U.N. Security Council to impose mild sanctions on Iran for enriching uranium as part of what U.S. officials believe is Tehran's effort to build a nuclear bomb. Iran insists that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful energy development.
U.S. officials have been trying to strengthen defense ties with Persian Gulf and other states to counter Iran's perceived growing influence in the region.
The U.S. Treasury Department has been taking steps to limit Tehran's access to Western investment, moves that have begun to crimp Iran's economy.
Administration officials continue to reject a key recommendation of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel, to establish contact with Tehran and Damascus to explore common interests in Iraq and elsewhere.
The panel, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), said in its December report that the U.S. needed to open talks with the two nations even if it disapproved of the regimes, because Iran and Syria wield influence in Iraq.
But the administration maintains that to reach any compromise with the two governments it would need to give way on vital issues, such as its push to end Tehran's nuclear ambitions and to halt Iran's support for militant groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. U.S. officials said Wednesday that they remained strongly opposed to talks.
Even so, Bush's new plan calls for regional meetings that would draw Syria and Iran into group diplomatic discussions on Iraq, and could lead to conversations between Washington and the two countries as part of the group.
The plan calls for the Iraqis to convene such a conference, just as they organized a multinational conference in Egypt in November 2004 to build more support for the new Iraqi state.
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paul.richter@latimes.com
