Administration Mulls Getting Tough With Iran

Zarif defended against U.S. intelligence intercepts that reportedly showed that al-Qaeda operatives hiding in Iran were involved in planning the deadly May 12 bombings in Saudi Arabia: "If there are al-Qaeda people, they are either unknown to us, operating in places that we have not been able yet to detect, and we will welcome any information that would help us in detecting and arresting them..."

The arrests in Iran and the ambassador’s denial of support to the Saudi attackers come in the nick of time before a scheduled White House meeting Tuesday to review the administration’s strategy toward the Islamic republic.

According to a report in the Washington Post, Pentagon officials are advocating public and private actions that they believe could lead to the toppling of the government through a popular uprising.

Zarif said reports that some parts of the U.S. government now want to destabilize the Tehran regime were "mere allegations." He did qualify, however, that "certain elements" in the United States have tried to bring down the Iranian government, according to a report in the Agence France Presse.

One of those “allegations” came recently from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld: "There's no question but that there have been and are today senior al Qaeda leaders in Iran, and they are busy."

On the other end of the spectrum is a senior administration official who was cited by the Washington Post as concurring with Zarif’s claim of ignorance. According to the Post report, the official said that in his view fewer than a dozen al-Qaeda appear to be located in an isolated area of northeastern Iran, near the border with Afghanistan.

“I don't think the elected government knows much about it," he said. "Why should you punish the rest of Iran," he asked, just because the government cannot act in this area?

The State Department, which has encouraged engagement with Iranians, is waiting to see how Iraq deals with the suspected al Qaeda operatives. According to the Post, department officials are also concerned that the tide of discontent there is much lower than Pentagon officials believe, leading to the possibility that U.S. efforts could ultimately discredit reformers in Iran.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage also recently opined, “I would note there's one dramatic difference between Iran and the other two axes of evil [N. Korea and Iraq], and that would be its democracy. You approach a democracy differently."

Since the suicide bombings at three residential compounds in Riyadh, which killed Americans among the other 43 dead, the Bush administration has canceled informal meetings between the countries. In prior talks, U.S. officials had repeatedly warned Iranian officials that if any al Qaeda operatives in Iran were linked to attacks against Americans, it would have serious consequences for relations between the two countries.

"We're headed down the same path of the last 20 years," one State Department official told the Post. "An inflexible, unimaginative policy of just say no."