IRAN UPDATE….Why did Iran’s Revolutionary Guard decide to seize 15 British sailors and marines last week? David Ignatius hazards a guess:
European officials note that the provocative move comes as speculation grows about new discussions between the United States and Iran — a dialogue the Revolutionary Guard may oppose.
….U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said several weeks ago that the United States was getting “pinged all over the world” by Iranian intermediaries who wanted a resumption of talks. Iran’s chief negotiator, Ali Larijani, hinted at such a message in his recent contacts with the European Union’s top diplomat, Javier Solana. But the prospect of nuclear talks may have been blown out of the water, as it were, until the British issue is resolved.
Maybe that was the goal of seizing the sailors and marines. The Revolutionary Guard, after all, can’t be happy about curbing the nuclear program that would allow it to project power even more aggressively.
It’s as good a theory as any.
