The Justice

Crown Center scholar Nagmeh Sohrabi discusses how the new U.S. President should deal with Iran.

Middle East scholars laid out their suggestions for the United States' future involvement in the Middle East in a program organized by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies Thursday evening in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall.

The panel event kicked off "Spotlight on the Middle East," a year long series of discussions regarding the challenges the Middle East will pose for the next U.S. president, who will take office January 2009.

Abdel Monem Said Aly, a senior fellow at the Crown Center, listed his "ten commandments" for the new president. The third commandment was, "Don't do what your predecessor President Bush did," Aly said, in regard to what he calls "failures related to management."

He warned that the next President must "reexamine Bush's policies fairly." The new administration should not simply negotiate with their known allies, but also with those countries that share similar interests regarding the conflict. Naghmeh Sohrabi, assistant Crown Center director for research, who is from Iran, opened her presentation by discussing her own family's fear about the situation in Iran.

After discussing the domestic and international failures by the Iranian government, Sohrabi concluded with an argument similar to Aly's. By comparing the situation in the Middle East to that of North Korea, Sohrabi was able to further assert that the United States must include neighboring Middle Eastern nations such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey in any negotiations in the region.

Sohrabi was quick to point out that no agreements will be reached if the negotiations seem to solely benefit U.S. needs.

Shai Feldman, the Crown Center's director, argued that the presidential candidates "run away like from fire" when it comes to offering opinions on moving forward in the Middle East conflicts.

Feldman presented his speech in the form of a set of questions for the new President.

"What priority should [the new president] attach to the Arab Israeli peacemaking?" he asked the audience.

Feldman's comments introduced the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into the discussion. Feldman discussed the options the future president has when approaching this conflict. One of the options was the "Clinton approach" of heavy investment with the negotiating parties, but he didn't know how likely it would be the future President would do that.

"Maybe if it will be a third Clinton term," he said. The problem of the different Palestinian partners also entered the discussion.

"Who should be considered a Palestinian partner?" he asked.

Another dilemma in this conflict is how to talk with the Palestinian leader, while making sure the Palestinian people will not accuse him of being too American, Feldman said. "How can we bolster him without burning him?"

Like the other speakers, one of Feldman's suggestions includes questioning which partners will be involved in resolution negotiations in the Middle East.

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